Expert for Fasteners & Fixings

Ian Doherty

Chief Executive

profile

Ian Doherty is the Chief Executive of Owlett-Jaton, the UK and Ireland’s largest wholesaler of fasteners and fixings.

Following an extensive career in distributive businesses, Ian joined Owlett-Jaton in 2016. Ian brings a passion for customer service along with extensive hands-on experience in sales, marketing and supply chain operations.

In addition to his role at Owlett-Jaton, Ian is also currently Chairman of the British and Irish Association of Fastener Distributors (BIAFD) and their representative to the European Federation of Distributor Associations (EFDA).

Owlett-Jaton

With a 30,000 SKU product range, Owlett-Jaton, the UK’s largest wholesaler of fasteners and fixings, supplies a comprehensive range of products to UK customers with next-day delivery. Established in 1947, Owlett-Jaton offers a complete wholesale solution to the builders’ merchant and distributor trade.

Among Owlett-Jaton’s well-known and trusted market-leading brands are the Unifix range of products, Vortex high-performance woodscrews, Thunderbolts and the extensive JCP range of specialist fixings. All products are backed up by technical support and endorsed by the company’s ISO 9001:2015 quality accreditation.

Owlett-Jaton is the only fastener and fixings wholesaler to have achieved the ISO 14001:2015 environmental accreditation and is continually striving to improve the sustainability of its operations and products.

Visit: www.owlett-jaton.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/owlett-jaton
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/jcp-construction-products

Owlett-Jaton Comment: Q3 2023

As expected, the volume downturn seen in the second quarter has continued as the construction and RM&I sectors continue to be sluggish. Reduced manufacturing costs in the Far East, together with lower shipping costs, have provided the drivers for cost price reductions, though these have been somewhat offset by the weakness of sterling against the US dollar in which both shipping and Far East costs are paid. Overall, this has led to some price deflation, which, together with the volume decline, has led to noticeably lower sales values.

Following on from the EU’s decision to tighten sanctions against the use of Russian steel, the UK has now also introduced a similar regime requiring importers to prove that the products they are importing do not contain any Russian steel, even if they were manufactured in another country. These new sanctions took effect from 30th September 2023 and were introduced with relatively short notice.

However, the UK has adopted more of a due diligence approach to the proof required, and HMRC, who are responsible for the enforcement of the sanctions, seem willing to accept a wider range of evidence that appropriate steps have been taken to ensure Russian steel is not being used. At the time of writing, we are now a couple of weeks into this new regime, it seems to have gone in with little or no disruption to supplies.

It also seems that the EU’s stance on the required evidence is becoming more flexible, with individual customs authorities being given a degree of latitude on acceptable evidence. With Northern Ireland covered by the EU rather than the UK sanctions regime, this change has simplified movements to Northern Ireland and all indications are, that providing importers have undertaken appropriate due diligence, there should not be any supply difficulties caused by sanctions.