AMMANFORD: The builders’ merchant that started as a Llandeilo sawmill in 1931 posts £92m sales, a 30% profit rise and a national award

The builders’ merchant that began life as a sawmill on Station Road in Llandeilo in 1931 has reported rising sales and profits for 2025, in a year it says was tough for the trade it serves.

LBS Group, now headquartered at Parc Amanwy in Ammanford, turned over £91.8m in the year to 31 December, up from £88.9m, with pre-tax profit up 30% to £3.2m, according to accounts filed by parent company LBS Holdings (UK) Limited.

Its profit margin improved by 0.7 percentage points, it says, despite “subdued conditions across the construction sector and continued pressure on margins”.

Four generations of the Davies family

Ernest Davies founded the business as Llandilo Builders Supplies, converting logs to timber and selling coal, and the initials stuck through his son Michel, grandson Mark and now the fourth generation, joint managing directors Ben and Rachel Davies, according to the company’s own history.

“As a fourth-generation family business, we take a long-term view,” Rachel said. “These results give us confidence to continue investing in our people and branches, and to build on the relationships that have supported LBS for generations.”

The group calls itself South Wales’s largest independent builders’ merchant, trading from 30 sites with an average of 472 staff last year, under names including Total Plumbing, Talbot Timber, LBS Kitchens and Bathrooms and LBS Renewables.

Bedding in the buys, then refitting the branches

After a spending spree in 2024, when it bought the family-run timber merchant DG Heath in Pontarddulais and Denman and Sons in Pengam, LBS says 2025 was about making those deals pay, and both delivered “in line with expectations”.

Money went instead into the existing estate, staff training, IT security and online sales, and net assets rose to £38.8m from £37.6m.

This year the Llanelli branch has had a full refurbishment and Ammanford‘s is nearly finished, both with new layouts and bathroom showrooms for tradespeople and homeowners, and the group says it has traded profitably through the first eight months of 2026 while launching a five-year strategy.

“Our investment in Llanelli and Ammanford demonstrates our commitment to the communities we serve,” Rachel said. “We want to keep improving what customers can access locally, while building a strong business for the next generation.”

“This recognition belongs to our teams”

The awards came on 25 September at the BMJ Industry Awards in London, where LBS was named Independent Merchant of the Year in the nine to 20 branches category, took runner-up for Merchant Bathroom and Kitchen Showroom of the Year, and saw Total Plumbing shortlisted for Plumbing and Heating Merchant of the Year.

“These awards are voted for by people across the industry, making them a particularly meaningful reflection of the relationships we have built with our customers, suppliers and peers,” Rachel said. “This recognition belongs to our teams and reflects the hard work and commitment they put in every day.”

Ben said the group’s customers were feeling the squeeze. “We know trading conditions remain tough for many of our customers. Our priority is to help them keep their projects moving and their businesses growing, with reliable service and support from people they know and trust.”

The brother and sister were named among the industry’s Top 100 Young Achievers in 2024. The group’s reach now runs from Llandeilo to the heat pump showroom it opened on Cramic Way in Port Talbot.

Ninety-five years after the first logs went through the Llandilo Saw Mill, the family says the plan is more of the same: keep the pound in Wales, and keep the next generation in the business.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.