Corporate News

Lords, a leading distributor of building materials in the UK, is pleased to announce the Group has showcased its commitment to developing its people by joining The 5% Club, a business led initiative focused on driving momentum into the recruitment of apprentices, graduates, T-Level students and sponsored students.

The 5% Club is a movement of more than 1,000 employers providing ‘earn and learn’ opportunities to develop the skills and talents people need to become more employable and create meaningful careers. Companies joining The 5% Club commit to raising the number of apprentices, sponsored students and graduates on formal programmes to 5% of their total workforce within five years. Members are also asked to publicly report their progress in their Annual Report. Existing members range from SMEs to FTSEs and cover all sectors including engineering, transport, and financial services.

Lords has chosen to join The 5% Club to publicly demonstrate its commitment to People, which is one of the Group’s key strategic pillars. Lords is actively increasing its outreach programme to educational establishments and encouraging work experience opportunities that support diversification in its workforce.

Shanker Patel, CEO of Lords, said: “Joining The 5% Club is an important next step in our journey to invest in people and grow the future of our industry. As a business built on long-standing relationships and local expertise, we are proud to offer more structured pathways into the sector, and to make those opportunities more accessible to young people from all backgrounds.”

Gill Cronin, Director of Operations at The 5% Club, said: “We are delighted to welcome Lords into our membership. The 5% Club provides a fantastic network of HR and L&D professionals, sharing and learning from each other. All our members share an ethos of creating a skilled workforce through ‘earn and learn’ development programmes, helping people develop meaningful career paths.”

FOR FURTHER ENQUIRIES:

Lords Group Trading plc	Via Burson Buchanan
Shanker Patel, CEO	Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000
Burson Buchanan
Henry Harrison-Topham / Steph Whitmore / Abby Gilchrist	LGT@buchanan.uk.com

Notes to editors:

Lords is a specialist distributor of building, plumbing, heating and DIY goods. The Group principally sells to local tradesmen, small to medium sized plumbing and heating merchants, construction companies and retails directly to the general public.

The Group operates through the following three divisions:

Merchanting: supplies building materials and DIY goods through its network of merchant businesses and online platform capabilities. It operates both in the 'light side' (building materials and timber) and 'heavy side' (civils and landscaping), through 32 locations in the UK.

Plumbing and Heating: a specialist distributor in the UK of plumbing and heating products to a UK network of independent merchants, installers and the general public. The division offers its customers an attractive proposition through a multi-channel offering.  The division operates in over 16 locations enabling nationwide next-day delivery service.

Digital: a market-leading e-commerce only platform serving UK homeowners and trade professionals through a suite of specialist Superstore websites. With over 140,000 listed products, the Superstores provide anyone building or improving homes in the UK with a unique hybrid approach combining online convenience with expert technical and customer support.

Lords was established over 40 years ago as a family business with its first retail unit in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.  Since then, the Group has grown into a business operating from 48 sites.