The Spotlight is On – GH Brooks & Co Ltd

Company profile:

• Business established: 1962
• Head office: Harrogate, North Yorkshire
• Number of employees: 32
• Branches: 2
• Time working with Midland Lead: 20+ years

North Yorkshire’s GH Brooks & Co Ltd joined the h&b Group six years ago, but sales director Andy Broadwith says the family-run builder’s merchant was selling Midland Lead’s product well before then.

“We’ve been selling Midland Lead’s machine cast lead sheet – along with ancillaries including patination oil, multi slates, lead dome sets and fixing clips – for the past 20 years now,” Andy confirms.

“Before we got the cost benefits from joining the h&b Group, we chose Midland Lead due to a combination of good price and great service. They really do go that extra mile, and are a great point of contact,” he says. “They’ll even help with last-minute bespoke order requests if needed.”

Andy’s family bought GH Brooks in 1976, but in fact the business has been running for over 54 years.

The firm began on a very small site on Dragon Parade and moved to its present location in Claro Road, Harrogate in 1992. In 2006, a further depot was acquired in the Summerbridge area, allowing the company to service a much wider geographical area.

More recently, in 2012, an opportunity arose to purchase the land adjacent to GH Brooks’ Claro Road site, which allowed for the creation of a two and a half acre stockyard and large timber shed. “This development enabled us to have the one-stop-shop we’ve always strived for,” Andy explains.

With two well-established branches, he says the company sells on average 50 tonnes of lead sheet annually. “This figure has increased 10-15% year on year over the past five years,” Andy notes. “I think this increase is down to us being able to offer a good price through H&B, the fact that we keep vast stock, and because Midland Lead really do go that extra mile, meaning we’re able to offer our customers a much better service compared to our competitors.”

When asking Andy whether he ever gets to find out where the lead sheet sold by GH Brooks is used, he recalls one particularly interesting project: “We did sell 12 tonnes of Midland Lead’s code 7 machine cast lead to a particularly out-of-the-ordinary project three years ago. It was for Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate, an independent boarding school, northwest of York, founded in 1912.

“Aside from this pretty interesting project, I’d say 90% of the projects we supply lead to are residential properties,” he says.

Looking towards the future, Andy adds: “Now that we’ve just finished development work on the Harrogate branch, we are looking into the possibility of a third branch – the location of which will remain a secret for now!”

To keep updated with GH Brooks’ progress or to find out more about the business, visit www.ghbrooks.co.uk or email enquiries@ghbrooks.co.uk.