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
Launched in 2015, the award winning monthly Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report is the only reliable measure of repair, maintenance & improvement (RMI) activity in the UK. Filling an important gap, it can be widely used in construction, and by economists, Government, national media, commentators and influencers outside the industry.
Owlett-Jaton Comment: Q2 2023
The forecasted declines predicted for both the construction and RM&I sectors do seem to be being translated into reality with substantial declines in both sectors. In turn, this is reflected in volume decline in the fastener and fixings sector.
Given the current economic outlooks for both the economy generally and construction specifically, it seems unlikely these downward volume trends will continue through the rest of 2023.
While interest rate rises are having an adverse effect on construction activity, they have helped the pound strengthen against the US dollar. Slower global economic growth has led to lower demand for products in China, leaving many factories running under capacity, which has allowed prices to ease somewhat.
These factors, together with contracted shipping costs remaining stable, has led to moderate cost price deflation in sterling for fastener and fixing product imports – which covers the bulk of products sold in the UK.
This deflation is starting to feed through into the market with some prices starting to ease and should continue for the rest of the year and into early 2024.
The war in Ukraine continues to impact the sector in unexpected ways. The EU has updated its sanctions on Russia by introducing new measures from 1st October 2023, which require importers of all steel products to prove the original steel in the products did not come from Russia, irrespective of where the product was manufactured.
This has the potential to disrupt the supply chain to Northern Ireland as most stock currently in the UK will not have the necessary certification to allow its entry into the EU single market, of which Northern Ireland is part.
It also seems very likely the UK will introduce a similar measure shortly, but as long as a few months’ notice is provided by the Government, this should not disrupt the UK market.