Merchants & Suppliers
143 sources in the library on merchants & suppliers, 20 on this page cited in a published note. Each one says what the document covers and what it is good for. Name a source to see which document it is and where to read it. One at a time. Page 3 of 4.
- supplier figure RN-KMVJLO cited
Toolstation
Toolstation's own page for its Trade Club Credit account: 5% off everything with no minimum spend, up to 60 days' interest-free credit, unlimited free next business day delivery for Trade Club members, and its advertised click-and-collect and rapid delivery times.
Cited in Screwfix vs Toolstation (2026): Which Is Better for What?.
- supplier figure RN-DNWJ6L cited
Travis Perkins
A national builders' merchant's product page for 38 x 89 mm CLS studwork timber. It settles that CLS is regularised by planing all round with eased, rounded corners, a size and finish description separate from its strength class.
- supplier figure RN-LVCSBF cited
Travis Perkins
Travis Perkins' product page for a 2.4 m length of 47 x 100 mm regularised treated C24 sawn timber, showing its retail price including VAT and the 14% trade account discount.
Cited in Builders' Merchant vs DIY Store: Which Is Cheaper?.
- supplier figure RN-Z61FIJ cited
Travis Perkins
A national merchant's own account page: a trade credit account gives a minimum of 30 days' interest-free credit and trade-only discounted prices.
Cited in Builders' Merchants Explained: How They Work & How to Buy, How to Negotiate with Builders' Merchants.
- supplier figure RN-D49EQF cited
Travis Perkins
Travis Perkins's own page on opening a trade cash or credit account. It states the minimum 30 days of interest-free credit that a merchant credit account gives.
- supplier figure RN-IVW0C1 cited
Travis Perkins
Travis Perkins product page for a 100 mm solid dense 7.3 N concrete block, giving its retail price including VAT and the lower trade account price.
Cited in Builders' Merchant vs DIY Store: Which Is Cheaper?, Builders' Merchants Explained: How They Work & How to Buy, Trade Cards & Loyalty Schemes at Merchants.
- supplier figure RN-VNSCMK cited
Travis Perkins
A national builders' merchant's delivery page, showing its September 2026 free next-day delivery threshold of £150 for online orders.
Cited in Builders' Merchant Delivery: Costs, Lead Times & Tips.
- supplier figure RN-K4UUO7 cited
Travis Perkins
Travis Perkins' own site banner stating its delivery offer: free next-day delivery on orders over £150, with free click and collect.
Cited in Builders' Merchants Explained: How They Work & How to Buy.
- supplier figure RN-EQBQV7 cited
Travis Perkins plc
Travis Perkins plc's annual report and accounts for 2025. It reports on Toolstation as one of the group's own businesses, including its branch network of 590 branches across the UK and 109 in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Cited in Screwfix vs Toolstation (2026): Which Is Better for What?, The Big Builders' Merchants Compared.
- supplier figure RN-CP9ZSU cited
Travis Perkins Trading Company Limited
Travis Perkins' own credit account application form and terms. It settles that its credit terms require payment by the end of the month following the date of invoice.
Cited in How to Open a Builders' Merchant Trade Account, Timber Merchants: What They Stock & How to Buy, Trade Cards & Loyalty Schemes at Merchants.
- supplier figure RN-G9SYC1 cited
Wickes
Wickes' product page for a 3 m length of 110 mm underground drainage pipe, with its September 2026 shelf price and per metre figure, the DIY store side of the drainage row.
Cited in Builders' Merchant vs DIY Store: Which Is Cheaper?.
- supplier figure RN-5HEY4S cited
Wickes
Wickes product page for the Tarmac Standard 7.3 N dense block, 100 mm, showing its current price of £2.40 reduced from £2.70.
Cited in Builders' Merchant vs DIY Store: Which Is Cheaper?, Builders' Merchants Explained: How They Work & How to Buy, How to Get Trade Prices Without a Trade Account.
- supplier figure RN-QPSSPS cited
Wickes Group plc
Wickes Group plc's full year results for 2025, published 17 March 2026: revenue, store openings and closures, a year-end estate of 230 stores, and its ambition to reach 300.
Cited in The Big Builders' Merchants Compared.
- supplier figure RN-SJ1HD3 cited
Wolseley UK
Wolseley UK's trade returns policy: 30 days for unused items in sealed packaging with proof of purchase, a possible restocking fee on non-stock items, and no returns of special-order or made-to-measure items unless faulty.
Cited in Plumbing & Heating Merchants Explained.
- supplier figure RN-818PK3 cited
Wolseley UK
Wolseley UK's terms of sale. For purchases on a trade account it requires invoices to be paid within 30 days of the end of the month in which they are dated, the usual merchant credit pattern.
Cited in Plumbing & Heating Merchants Explained.
- supplier figure RN-W8NI9E cited
Wolseley UK
The home page of Wolseley, a national plumbing and heating merchant; it advertises trade accounts that let a customer start trading within 60 minutes, an example of fast online account opening.
Cited in Plumbing & Heating Merchants Explained.
- supplier figure RN-3L8OEO cited
Worcester Bosch
A major boiler maker's guarantee terms; they make the guarantee conditional on installation by a certified installer and registration within 30 days, an example of the common condition.
Cited in Plumbing & Heating Merchants Explained.
- secondary RN-D0TP9O cited
Builders Merchants Journal
Trade press report, 24 March 2026, that MKM Building Supplies was opening its 143rd branch, in Luton, on 30 March 2026.
Cited in The Big Builders' Merchants Compared.
- secondary RN-2UER90 cited
Builders' Merchants News
Trade press report that Grafton Group completed the £520 million sale of its GB traditional merchanting business to Huws Gray on 31 December 2021: about 200 branches and 3,500 people, including Grafton Merchanting GB (Buildbase), Smiths Briten, Frontline Bathrooms, The Timber Group and Harvey Steel Lintels.
Cited in The Big Builders' Merchants Compared.
- secondary RN-XZZXKZ cited
Timber Trades Journal
Timber Trades Journal, the timber trade's journal of record, reporting that Grafton completed the sale of its GB traditional merchanting business, including Buildbase, to Huws Gray on 31 December 2021.
Cited in Builders' Merchants Explained: How They Work & How to Buy.
- very strong RN-1C52M8
Competition and Markets Authority (GOV.UK)
The CMA's guidance on Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, the regime that now governs how a merchant may advertise and price. The provisions apply to commercial practices occurring from 6 April 2025 onwards, and the guidance updates and replaces the OFT's Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations guidance OFT1008, superseding the 2008 Regulations. Schedule 20 sets out 32 practices banned outright in all circumstances, including fake consumer reviews at banned practice 13, false claims about product availability, misleading endorsements, pyramid schemes and aggressive sales tactics. The total price rule requires a trader to give the total price of the product including any mandatory fees, taxes, charges or other payments the consumer must pay, or to explain how the price will be calculated where it cannot be given in advance, which is the provision that catches drip pricing on delivery and handling charges. Chapter 4 covers material information in an invitation to purchase, with detailed pricing transparency held separately in CMA209.
- very strong RN-C6R9F2
Department for Business and Trade (GOV.UK)
The trader-facing statement of returns law, and the clearest source on why a merchant can lawfully refuse some returns. A full refund is compulsory where goods are faulty, not as described, or do not do what they are meant to. For in-store purchases nothing is owed where the customer knew of the fault, damaged the item themselves, or has simply changed their mind. For online, mail order and telephone sales the customer has 14 days from receiving the item to give notice of cancellation and a further 14 days to return it, and the trader must refund within 14 days of getting the goods back, including standard outbound delivery cost though only up to the standard rate where the customer chose premium delivery. Cancellation rights do not apply to personalised or custom-made items, perishables, newspapers and magazines, unwrapped media, or sealed hygiene goods, which is the basis for a merchant refusing a cut-to-size or special-order return. Faulty goods: repair or replacement without proof inside six months, consumer burden after that, with claims possible for up to six years, or five years in Scotland. An expired warranty does not remove the statutory obligation.
- very strong RN-0KUBSE
Department for Business and Trade (GOV.UK)
The pre-contract information a distance seller must give and the cancellation rules, from the trader-facing side. Before the sale the business must supply, in a form the customer can save (on paper, by email or otherwise), its name, contact details and address, a description of the goods or services, the price including all taxes, payment methods, delivery arrangements, costs and timeframe, any minimum contract length and billing period, termination conditions, cancellation rights and deadlines, any costs for services already supplied if the customer cancels, a standard cancellation form where applicable, digital content compatibility information, and the cost of communication where above the standard rate. The customer has 14 days after delivery to cancel without giving a reason. Notable exemptions from the distance selling regime: goods under £42, NHS prescriptions and treatment, financial services, the construction of new buildings, regular food and drink deliveries, gambling, package holidays and timeshares, residential lettings, vending machines, payphone and internet access charges, and passenger transport tickets. The new-building exemption is why a distance sale of construction services is treated differently from a sale of materials.
- very strong RN-FM022G
Environment Agency / Defra (GOV.UK)
The paperwork obligations on anyone producing hazardous waste from building work, which in a domestic renovation typically means asbestos, solvents, adhesives, treated timber, fluorescent tubes and old paint. The producer must complete the parts of the hazardous waste consignment note that apply to them, keep one copy, and give two copies to the carrier collecting the waste. Records, known as a register, must be kept for 3 years at the premises that produced or stored the waste, and the register must include consignment notes, consignee returns, and related documents such as carrier schedules and rejected load records. That 3 year period is longer than the 2 years required for ordinary non-hazardous waste transfer notes, and is the retention period a homeowner should expect a contractor to observe. The page does not state a premises code requirement or a tonnage threshold.
- very strong RN-93R0C1
HM Revenue & Customs
HMRC's rate table for Aggregates Levy, the per tonne tax due when aggregate, meaning sand, gravel or rock, is commercially exploited. The rate is 2.03 pounds per tonne from 1 April 2024, 2.08 pounds per tonne from 1 April 2025 and 2.16 pounds per tonne from 1 April 2026. Registration is required by anyone who, for commercial purposes, exploits taxable aggregate in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or moves taxable aggregate into those countries from Scotland. This is the tax component built into every quoted tonne of sand, gravel, ballast or Type 1 sub-base, and the page is the citable source for it rather than a supplier's price list.
- very strong RN-NIGEMM
HM Revenue and Customs (GOV.UK)
HMRC's worked list of which goods count as building materials under Notes 22 and 23, which decides whether a supplier can zero or reduced rate them and whether a builder can recover the input tax. Accepted as ordinarily incorporated: television and radio aerials and satellite dishes, now regarded as ordinarily incorporated in all types of buildings; trees and shrubs supplied with a new home, following Rialto Homes plc; mirrors in student accommodation, all relevant residential purpose buildings and all types of dwelling; solar panels in all buildings when they form part of the heating system; water softeners only where installed in-line with the building's water supply; and manual blinds and shutters. Electric Eco Pocket blinds may qualify where they regulate room temperature by retaining heat in winter and cutting solar gain. Not ordinarily incorporated: safes, following Glenie Eldridge Joel, though policy accepts them in relevant residential and charitable buildings; stand-alone water softeners; and motorised blinds and shutters, which are caught by the input tax blocking order.
- very strong RN-GB57MH
Office for Product Safety and Standards (GOV.UK)
The general product safety regime that sits alongside the construction products rules and catches everything the CPR does not. The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 require all products to be safe in their normal or reasonably foreseeable use. Manufacturers and importers must minimise risks, generate and keep technical documentation, label products appropriately, and give safe usage instructions. Distributors and retailers, which is where a builders merchant sits, must not supply products they know or ought to know are unsafe, and must keep supplier records so a product can be traced back up the chain. Once a business becomes aware of a safety risk it is legally obliged to notify the manufacturer, supplier or local Trading Standards, and failure to do so creates liability for resulting harm. Corrective action can mean new instructions, modification, or recall with direct contact to affected consumers. Enforcement in Great Britain is by local authority Trading Standards and the Office for Product Safety and Standards; in Northern Ireland by local authority Environmental Health and OPSS. Liability frameworks sit in the Consumer Protection Act 1987.
- very strong RN-HVQINY
Office for Product Safety and Standards (GOV.UK)
The rule that governs whether the timber on a merchant's rack may lawfully be sold at all. Operators, meaning anyone who first places timber or timber products on the Great Britain market, must not place illegally harvested timber on that market, and must operate a due diligence system in three steps: gather information on species, quantity, supplier, country of harvest and legal compliance; assess risk against the criteria in the regulations; and mitigate any non-negligible risk through further verification or information. All species in a composite must be assessed separately, though the recycled portion of a product need not be. Scope covers imported and domestic timber and a broad range of products including composites such as furniture, pulp and paper. Enforcement across Great Britain and Northern Ireland is by the Office for Product Safety and Standards, which verifies due diligence systems, keeps trader records and validates FLEGT licences. Legal basis: the Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2013, the FLEGT Regulations 2012, and the 2018 and 2020 EU Exit amendments. The page states no penalty figures.
- very strong RN-SECOIT
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The provision that bites when a customer describes the job and the merchant sells them the wrong thing. s.10(1) applies where, before the contract is made, the consumer makes known to the trader expressly or by implication any particular purpose for which they are contracting for the goods. s.10(3) then treats the contract as including a term that the goods are reasonably fit for that purpose, whether or not it is a purpose for which goods of that kind are usually supplied, so telling a merchant the adhesive is for an unheated outbuilding brings that use inside the term even if it is unusual. s.10(4) is the escape: the term does not apply if the circumstances show the consumer does not rely, or it is unreasonable for the consumer to rely, on the skill or judgment of the trader or credit-broker, which is how a trade counter defends itself against a professional buyer specifying their own product. s.10(2) extends the section to purposes made known to a credit-broker, and s.10(5) preserves fitness terms arising by usage of trade.
- very strong RN-6QID1S
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 11(1) implies into every contract to supply goods by description a term that the goods will match the description. s.11(2) makes clear that where goods are supplied by both sample and description, matching the sample is not enough: they must also match the description, which is the answer to a merchant who points at a sample board when the delivered batch is wrong. s.11(3) keeps a sale within the section even where the consumer selected the goods themselves from open display, so picking your own timber off the rack does not forfeit the right. s.11(4) turns pre-contract information about the main characteristics of the goods, as required by Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, into a term of the contract, which is how a website specification or catalogue entry becomes binding. s.11(5) makes any change to that information ineffective unless expressly agreed between the consumer and the trader. Public auctions are treated differently under s.2(5) and (6); remedies are in s.19.
- very strong RN-XMBAHR
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The provision behind the recurring complaint that a delivered batch of tiles, bricks, paint or flooring does not match the sample the customer was shown. s.13(1) applies the section to a contract to supply goods by reference to a sample of the goods seen or examined by the consumer before the contract is made. s.13(2)(a) implies a term that the goods will match the sample, except to the extent that any differences between the sample and the goods are brought to the consumer's attention before the contract is made, which is the point at which a merchant's warning about batch or shade variation must be given if it is to have effect. s.13(2)(b) adds a second, independent term: the goods will be free from any defect that makes their quality unsatisfactory and that would not be apparent on a reasonable examination of the sample, so an inspection of the sample does not waive hidden defects in the batch. s.13(3) points to section 19 for the remedies. Distinguish section 14, which covers a model rather than a sample.
- very strong RN-UWQ8CE
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The provision that governs buying from a showroom display, a merchant's demonstration unit or a sample board. s.14(1) applies the section to a contract to supply goods by reference to a model of the goods that is seen or examined by the consumer before entering into the contract. s.14(2) treats every such contract as including a term that the goods will match the model, except to the extent that any differences between the model and the goods are brought to the consumer's attention before the consumer enters into the contract, so a merchant who wants to supply something different from the display must flag the difference at the point of sale, not in the small print afterwards. s.14(3) points to section 19 for the remedies on breach. Note the distinction from section 13, which deals with goods supplied by reference to a sample rather than a model.
- very strong RN-W8IHK3
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The gateway section that maps each breach to a remedy and carries the reverse burden of proof. Breaches of the statutory terms in sections 9 to 14 and section 16 give the short-term right to reject under sections 20 and 22; breaches of sections 9 to 14, 15 and 16 also give the right to repair or replacement under section 23; and the right to a price reduction or the final right to reject follows under sections 20 and 24. The provision that decides most merchant disputes is s.19(14): goods which do not conform to the contract at any time within the period of six months beginning with the day of delivery must be taken not to have conformed on that day, so for the first six months it is the trader, not the customer, who must prove the goods were sound when supplied. s.19(15) sets the two exceptions, where it is established that the goods did conform on delivery, or where the presumption is incompatible with the nature of the goods or the nature of the lack of conformity.
- very strong RN-7U8SUG
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 23 is the second-tier remedy for goods that do not conform to contract, available after the 30-day short-term right to reject has lapsed. s.23(2) requires the trader to repair or replace within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer, and to bear any necessary costs including labour, materials and postage. s.23(5) says what counts as a reasonable time or significant inconvenience is determined by the nature of the goods and the purpose for which they were acquired, which is how a delivery of the wrong bricks mid-build is treated differently from a returned tool. s.23(3) and (4) set the disproportionate cost test: the consumer cannot demand repair over replacement or vice versa where that remedy imposes unreasonable costs on the trader judged against the value the goods would have if conforming, the significance of the lack of conformity, and whether the other remedy could be effected without significant inconvenience.
- very strong RN-NBEKR0
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 24 is the third-tier remedy where repair or replacement under s.23 has failed. The consumer may exercise a price reduction or the final right to reject, but s.24(5) allows only one of the two, and the right arises after one repair or one replacement has been attempted and the goods still do not conform, or where repair or replacement is impossible, or the trader has not acted within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. s.24(8) permits any refund on a final rejection to be reduced by a deduction for use, reflecting the consumer's use of the goods since delivery. s.24(10) bars any such deduction where the final right to reject is exercised within the first six months, except for motor vehicles and goods specified by order of the Secretary of State. For building materials this means a full refund with no use deduction inside six months.
- very strong RN-KDWNV6
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 28 governs when ordered goods must arrive. s.28(3) sets the default where the parties have agreed no date: the trader must deliver without undue delay and in any event not more than 30 days after the day the contract is entered into. s.28(6) lets the consumer treat the contract as at an end immediately where the trader has refused to deliver, or where the agreed time was essential given the circumstances, or where the consumer told the trader before the contract that delivery by a particular time was essential. Where the time was not essential, s.28(7) requires the consumer first to specify a further period appropriate in the circumstances; s.28(8) then allows the contract to be treated as at an end if that period passes. s.28(9) obliges the trader to reimburse all payments made under the contract without undue delay. This is the provision behind a claim for a merchant missing a delivery slot that holds up a trade.
- very strong RN-DBZR1I
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
Section 29 settles who bears the loss when materials are damaged or lost in transit. s.29(2) keeps the goods at the trader's risk until they come into the physical possession of the consumer or of a person identified by the consumer to take possession of them, so a pallet of tiles smashed on a merchant's own lorry is the merchant's problem, not the customer's. s.29(3) and (4) carve out the case where the consumer, rather than the trader, engages the carrier: where the consumer commissions a carrier of their own choosing and that carrier was not among the options the trader offered, the goods are at the consumer's risk on and after delivery to that carrier. s.29(5) preserves the carrier's separate liability to the consumer. In force from 1 October 2015. Decisive for arguments over who pays for breakages on a site delivery.
- very strong RN-2VNDBA
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The section that overrides a merchant's own terms and conditions. s.31(1) makes a term of a contract to supply goods not binding on the consumer to the extent that it would exclude or restrict the trader's liability under section 9 satisfactory quality, section 10 fitness for particular purpose, section 11 goods as described, section 12 pre-contract information, section 13 goods to match a sample, section 14 goods to match a model, section 15 installation as part of conformity, section 16 digital content conformity, section 17 the trader's right to supply, section 28 delivery, and section 29 passing of risk. s.31(2) extends this beyond outright exclusions to terms that restrict the available remedies, make a remedy or its enforcement subject to onerous or restrictive conditions, put the consumer at a disadvantage for pursuing the right or remedy, or exclude or restrict rules of evidence or procedure. s.31(5) and (6) carve out a limited exception for hire contracts under section 17. This is the answer to a no-refunds-on-special-order sign.
- very strong RN-K5GYU3
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The fixed sums a supplier may add to a late-paid commercial debt on top of statutory interest, which is what a builders merchant relies on when chasing an overdue trade account and what a contractor can claim from a slow-paying client business. s.5A(2) sets three bands by the size of the unpaid debt: £40 where the debt is less than £1,000, £70 where it is £1,000 or more but less than £10,000, and £100 where it is £10,000 or more. The sum is payable per invoice, not per account. s.5A(2A) adds that where the supplier's reasonable costs of recovering the debt exceed the fixed sum, the supplier is also entitled to the difference between the fixed sum and those costs, which is the route to recovering solicitor or debt agency fees. Applies to contracts between businesses, not to consumer contracts.
- very strong RN-OH6TTJ
The National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
The business-to-business equivalent of the Consumer Rights Act terms, and the provision that governs a builder buying on a trade account, where the CRA does not apply. s.14(2) implies into a sale in the course of a business a term that the goods are of satisfactory quality. s.14(2A) sets the reasonable person standard taking account of any description, the price if relevant, and all other relevant circumstances. s.14(2B) lists the aspects of quality: fitness for all purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied, appearance and finish, freedom from minor defects, safety and durability. s.14(2C) excludes defects specifically drawn to the buyer's attention before the contract, defects the buyer's own examination ought to have revealed, and in sample sales defects apparent on a reasonable examination of the sample. s.14(3) implies fitness for a particular purpose made known to the seller unless the buyer did not rely, or it was unreasonable to rely, on the seller's skill or judgment. s.14(6) classifies these as conditions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so breach entitles the buyer to reject.