2021 Chairperson Awards

16 CEO MONTHLY / CHAIRPERSON AWARDS 2021 , Sep21256 Best Timber and Building Supplies Business Leader: Gary O’Brien Lords Group Trading was established over 35 years ago as a family business with its first retail unit in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The company has since expanded to operating 34 sites with a combined turnover in excess of £288million. CEOMonthly has recognised the company’s chairman, Gary O’Brienwithin its Chairperson Awards 2021, so we take a closer look at the company and Gary’s career. Lords Group Trading is a specialist distributor of building, plumbing, heating and DIY goods. It is principally focused on the growing repairs, maintenance and improvement (RMI) market, with approximately 80% of the Group’s demand being focused on this segment of the construction market. Over the years, it has experienced strong organic growth and remained well placed to take advantage of the future favourable conditions within the RMI market. Lords has acquired more than 13 businesses within the last 10 years and is an expert at integrating teams. The Group’s main clients are local tradesmen, hardware stores, plumbing and heating merchants and construction companies who use the company’s deep product knowledge to source and procure a wide variety of building products. Customers are offered an outstanding buying experience, enabled by the longstanding industry expertise of the senior management team and employees, and enhanced through access to a diverse range of suppliers. Gary O’Brien’s career is steeped in major high street retail and FMCG businesses and a consistent track record of achievement, with over 25 years of PLC experience, coupled with extensive exposure to US operations. His particular strengths lie in commercially orientated general management skills, which benefit from the exposure at the most senior levels of corporate activities. Restructuring and strategic repositioning of businesses, either caused by difficult economic conditions or purely mis-management has been an area of specialism experienced in several of the organisations Gary has worked with. He is now using this experience to provide non-executive/strategic management guidance to small- to mid-size organisations. Gary’s role within Lords initially began in 2014 as advisor to the Board to undertake a strategic review of the business, from which he prepared a five-year plan. In the period that Gary has been at Lords, the business has grown from a small £23 million approx. turnover to the £288 million turnover business of today. Gary became chairman of Lords in June 2020 and in July 2021, he took the business public and listed on the UK AIM exchange. This capitalised the company approx. £150 million, raising £52 million for founding shareholders (£22 million) and providing cash (£30 million) to continue the aggressive expansion of the business. Alongside Gary’s efforts at Lords, he is the founder and director of property-oriented Polaris and Chiltern Group. Examples of projects by these companies include a 1.1milsqft mixed development in Glasgow (Collegelands – the largest renovation project in Scotland); advising Lambeth Council on the energy requirements in a new 2,500 housing scheme; working with Laing O’Rourke in a 75-acre infrastructure in Cardiff; and development of a warehouse in Buckingham into student accommodation. Polaris has undertaken investments in property developments, including 49 apartment developments in Southend and a six townhouse/23 apartment scheme in Weymouth. Indeed, Gary has extensive experience behind him and has and continues to make a significant contribution to both the construction industry and Lords as chairman. Looking ahead, he intends to continue his work with Lords as it seeks to keep growing through a variety of organic and inorganic strategies, including geographic reach, product expansion, the active expansion of e-commerce platforms, and the continued investment in logistic capability. Company: Lords Group Trading Contact: Gary O’Brien Email: garyobrien@ chilternmanagement.com Website: www. lordsgrouptradingplc.co.uk