Family-run independent builders’ merchant celebrates 170th anniversary

Founded in 1854, The George Bence Group is now the second-oldest business in Cheltenham. During its 170 years, the independent builders’ merchant has seen six generations of Bences manage and grow the company as it continues to diversify to meet the needs of local trades. Starting as a single-site operation, in the past 25 years the company has expanded to eight branches and 150 employees.

Having been in business through three centuries, the group has learned from different generations of merchants along the way. The current managing director is Paul Bence. He says: “As a business, we want to look at what our customers and local community need the most and learn from this, not just focus on what we want to sell. We make sure we know our clients well through our area sales managers who can have personal conversations with our customers and find solutions to any challenges.”

This works the same way with suppliers too. The group has long played a major role in the industry buying society NMBS. Bence says that this gives the group access to a wide range of suppliers, who allow the company to quickly and easily find products that customers need and add them to the product offering. These relationships with suppliers allow independent businesses like The George Bence Group to quickly sort out any product issues, because they have personal relationships with their stakeholders.

Bence says: “We have been a member of NMBS for longer than my career in the business,” he says. “My father sat on the management board, became the longest-standing member and helped introduce the NMBS Conference. I joined the board in 2023, and have enjoyed establishing the needs and wants of independent members and providing a real drive and focus on how we can continue to improve the industry. The board meetings allow us to gain and combine knowledge about the wider industry from people across the whole sector who are as passionate about customer service and product knowledge as we are.”

Future focus

As well as acknowledging its history, the group is also focussed on how it continues to build into the future. Like many other independent builders’ merchants, the George Bence ethos is that industry knowledge should be shared wider than just the merchant industry, so it goes into local schools and delivers presentations to students. The company also offers apprenticeships in its wood machine shop to help pass on its knowledge to the next generation of merchants.

By offering apprenticeships, The George Bence Group is supporting the work that NMBS is going with construction apprenticeships specialist LEAP, to train scores of builders’ merchant apprentices each year. This helps to address the skills gap while maximising the use of levy funds across the construction sector.

Beyond sharing knowledge with the next generation, The George Bence Group has always been active in the local community. During the past few decades, it has raised more than £100,000 for local charities like Cotswold Breast Cancer Awareness and the Sue Ryder Cancer Charity. It has supplied and fitted the Cobalt Garden Facility at Cheltenham General Hospital and has also been the main sponsor of the Cheltenham Town Football Club for four years.

Family first

This support in the local community is also mirrored within the business. “Family has always been at the heart of everything we do, and we strive to treat our clients as an extension of our own family,” Bence says. “We always make our business events personal by inviting family and partners to our days out and international seminars.” The family-first approach also extends to to employees. Staff retention is four times higher than the national average in the company, with some employees working for almost 60 years.

He continues: “We are only as good as our employees, so we place a strong focus on employee training, satisfaction and product confidence, so our people can provide customer service that goes above and beyond.”

NMBS CEO Chris Hayward adds: “The George Bence Group is an example of what an independent business can do to support their local community, the next generation and their employees. This is why we have declared 2024 as the ‘year of the independent builders’ merchant’ and launched a year-long campaign to celebrates these types of businesses across our industry.

“Only 0.001% of all businesses make it to their 170th anniversary, so it is a massive achievement from all six generations of Bences that have shaped the business and we are grateful to support them throughout their years of success.”