Arnold Laver is a British timber merchant based in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, United Kingdom. Founded by Arnold Laver in 1920, the company has 16 timber depots across the UK, employing over 750 people.

History

Arnold Laver started his business using a hand cart, he made customers pay in advance, bought the wood then delivered it. In its first year, Laver made enough money to buy a horse, named ''Charlie'', to help him with his deliveries. In 1925 Arnold Laver began negotiations to purchase a much larger site on Bramall Lane and in 1927 the new Olympic Sawmills opened. This site was the Company's head office in later years, with the main depot moving to the old goods-yard off Queens road, as the firm expanded. The saw mill on Bramall Lane/Shoreham Street has been redeveloped as Arnold Laver's new head office and ''Anchor Point'', a residential complex, which has been built above the offices on the site of the old offices and saw mill. The site is next door to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

's ground and their hotel development, the company being the club's primary sponsor from 1985 until 1995. The company also redeveloped its site on Queens Road in 2002 and it is now occupied by a B&Q superstore. The Olympic sawmill and trade outlet moved to a new site at

Mosborough Mosborough is a village in the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of Derbyshire, the village was named after The Moss river which flows through the village. During the late 19th century and 20th century, the villa ...

. The company now supplies timber and timber based products to a wide range of customers and sectors, including many of the largest civil engineers, the Ministry of Defence, shop-fitters and supplied 50% of all the timber and sheet materials used in building the 2012 Summer Olympics venues. In 1960 Arnold Laver & Co Ltd diversified and established Laver Leisure, a series of holiday home park in and around

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, ...

, with over 1400 seasonal holiday homes across 11 different parks. In December 2007, the company underwent a management buy-in led by Andrew Laver (managing director), Mark Bower (finance director) and the senior management team who were joined by Nigel Petrie, the buy-in candidate and non-executive director. The management acquired the company from the Laver family trust, with financing provided by Yorkshire Bank. In November 2018, British private equity firm Cairngorm Capital acquired Arnold Laver as part of its buy-and-build strategy to create The National Timber Group. The Group was formed with the aim of consolidating the highly fragmented specialist UK timber merchant market. Arnold Laver's previous shareholders retained ownership of the company's existing property and leisure interests.

Depots

The company has 17 depots across the UK: *

Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...

* Bradford *

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

* Hull *

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

*London *

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

* Oldbury, West Midlands *

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

Central *

Mosborough

References

External links

Arnold Laver website

Laver Online website
Laver, Arnold Companies based in Sheffield Building materials companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1920 1920 establishments in the United Kingdom Privately held companies of the United Kingdom {{manufacturing-company-stub, Laver, Arnold