The North East and Yorkshire family-owned and managed builders’ merchant has opened a new warehouse as part of the 1.3-acre external yard extension to its Billingham premises.
The company says the opening of the new warehouse represents another step of its five-year strategic plan, enhancing its logistical capability to support customer demand for a wider range of building products.
As part of this longer-term plan, Blyth and Bishop Auckland branches closed in 2024 & 2025 respectively. The Bishop Auckland closure allowed James Burrell to strengthen its other two branches on Teesside, with impacted employees deployed to these locations to support the ongoing growth and business needs.
The business sees the rapid growth of the size and scale of the Billingham branch as a great success story, especially through the challenging period that the construction industry has faced recently.
Established in 1877, and with the next generation of family now in directorship roles alongside Managing Director Mark Richardson and the management team, the merchant is very proud of its longevity and heritage as it is about to celebrate its 150th year of trading in 2027.
The company prides itself in its reputation for an excellent level of customer retention, which results from consistently high-quality service levels. This has been strengthened by a new ERP system which was implemented in 2024 and has resulted in greater efficiencies of these service levels offered to customers. FORS silver accreditation has been maintained which underlines the focus on quality attached to the logistical side of the business. A further investment in four new HGV'S has also just been made in the spring and from a health and safety perspective, the last year has seen a further fall in the number of reportable incidents.
Recently filed accounts at Companies House showed a turnover increase of 1.3% for the year to October 2025 of £96.3 million versus £95.1 million for the prior year and a significant improvement in EBITDA from £0.5 million last year to £2.1 million in 2025. Challenging trading conditions continue to affect construction activity and this has continued into 2026, but the resilient and improving performance has pleased the company's directors.
In 2025 James Burrell changed buying group to join Fortis who are the UK's leading independent mixed merchant buying group. This change and enhancement to supplier relationships has contributed towards the EBITDA improvement evidenced by James Burrell in 2025 and may result in a further incremental increase in 2026.
Average headcount reduced to 264 in 2025, compared to 301 in the previous year and a high of 312 back in 2023, reflecting a subdued trading environment and stagnant economy in which the construction sector is awaiting a more advantageous set of circumstances. This "right-sizing" of the business is viewed as being necessary to balance and match the costs to the trading environment.
The consistent and long-term investment across the business has been carried out to ensure James Burrell is well placed to exploit opportunities when trading conditions improve and to continue to pursue further expansion opportunities as and when they arise, in line with the five-year strategic plan. Present forecasts for 2026 are indicating that improvement in financial performance should continue.
