James Burrell

About James Burrell

Who we are

James Burrell Builders Merchant is a family-owned company that has been trading for over 145 years, and over that time we have established ourselves as one of the leading independent builders’ merchants in the North East and Yorkshire. We have various teams in James Burrell who will always aim to provide the very best levels of service from all aspects of the business. These teams include, sales, purchasing, accounts, logistics and marketing. As a trusted family owned builders’ merchant with over 145 years of experience, our well-earned reputation for quality is something we place at the core of our business.

What we provide

At James Burrell we offer a high-quality range of heavyside, building and civils materials, as well as specialising in timber, roofing, dry lining and insulation. We also stock full ranges of landscaping tools and hardware and joinery products. With a stock holding of over £8.0m, our building products and systems are available to our customers on a next day delivery basis where stock levels allow. We offer quality products at competitive prices and our experienced sales teams are on hand across our branch network should you need any additional assistance.

Our trading areas

We cover a large area from Northumberland down to South Yorkshire and our 10 strategically placed branches allow us to offer an unrivalled level of service to our regional and national customers. Our branches are located in:

• Billingham
• Bishop Auckland
• Gateshead
• Morpeth
• Newcastle
• Ossett
• Rotherham
• Stockton
• Sunderland
• York

How we deliver our excellent customer service

Our current fleet of 45 vehicles includes crane off-loading vehicles, sprinter vans and flatbed vehicles and are capable of delivering 600 tonnes of material first load every day. Most vehicles average 3 loads per day, which means we are delivering over 1800 tonnes of material across our region every working day. That’s a lot of building products that we’re entrusted to deliver every year, over 468 million kilos! We have proved our commitment to exceeding the industry standard, by achieving silver accreditation in the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS). FORS is a voluntary scheme which aims to raise the level of quality, safety and environmental protection within fleet operations.

Safety, efficiency and environmental protection are a top priority here at James Burrell and we are dedicated in providing not only the highest quality products and customer service, but exemplary levels of road safety. We plan to continue our accreditation journey with FORS to ensure that we are always providing the highest level of service to our customers and community. Out of our fleet, 44 out of 45 of our vehicles are at a Euro 6 rating.

Company culture

Why James Burrell?

At James Burrell Builders Merchants a large proportion of our team have been with us for many years. We believe this shows a high level of employee engagement which has been achieved by continual employee development, rewarding hard work and loyalty as well as providing a happy, friendly environment for people to work in.

Employee benefits and perks

Career development and growth

We are committed in investing in the development of our team through providing training and opportunities that focus on acquiring new skills, knowledge, and experience, essential for adapting to new challenges and industry changes.

We believe in developing our people and giving them the skills and opportunity to progress.  We have a proven track record of this with a number of our managers and senior management having progressed from apprenticeships and junior positions.  By giving these opportunities we retain that talent that we have helped to grow and develop and that has been instrumental in ensuring we have people with long term service.  These people are the DNA of James Burrell and are key to maintaining the relationships with or customers and suppliers.

Apprenticeships

While we see the benefit of retaining our highly experienced team we also see the necessity of looking to the future by investing in an apprenticeship or trainee program’s. Our apprentices/trainees may be recruited to a specific area of interest to them or they are given experience of working in various different areas before finding their preferred route where they can specialise and develop their skills.

EDI (equity, diversity & inclusion) initiatives

The Company is committed to equality of opportunity in all its employment practices, policies and procedures. No employee or potential employee will therefore receive less favourable treatment due to their race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, disability, age, religion or belief, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marital status, part time or fixed term employment status or membership or non-membership of a trade union.

Within the framework of the law, the Company is committed wherever practicable to achieving and maintaining a workforce which broadly reflects the local catchment area and customer base within which it operates.

The following principles form the basis of the Company’s Diversity Policy:

• the Company is committed to ensuring that all employees and potential employees are treated with respect and dignity;
• the Company encourages applications from the widest possible range of candidates;
• the Company seeks to make full use of the talents and resources of all of its employees;
• the Company seeks at all times to create a working environment free from unlawful discrimination, victimisation and harassment.