Risk-taker Ganley ready to go it alone

Apr 7 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

THE boss of one of the largest family businesses in the North East has taken sole charge of the company in a multi-million deal.

Anne Ganley, managing director of Thompsons Building Centres, has owned and run the near £32m turnover business alongside brother Albert Thompson for 25 years.

But now Mrs Ganley has bought out her brother’s 50% stake in the business, after the siblings decided the deal was the best way to accommodate their different approaches to business.

Mr Thompson will now concentrate solely on running the Thompson waste management business – the core of the original company based in Hendon, Sunderland.

Meanwhile Mrs Ganley has plans for expanding Thompson Building Centres and its associated Taps plumbing and heating.

The company has recently acquired a site from Brick Technical Services in Birtley, opened up a new Taps outlet there, and has plans to open two more in the next few months at Hartlepool and Team Valley in Gateshead, to take the total number of company outlets to 12.

The deal for Brick follows Thompsons’ £4m capture of Fossway Builders Merchants at the end of 2006.

Mrs Ganley said: “My brother and I have worked together for 25 years, but we came to a crossroads where the vision I had, and the vision he had, were to go in different directions.

“I’m a bit of a risk taker, and have all sorts of plans for investment and growth, where he is more of a cautious business person.”

The buy out deal was handled by Katherine Hay-Heddle of Ward Hadaway law firm, and Neville Bearpark of UNW accountants, while a team led by Andrew Hopper of bankers Lloyds TSB Corporate provided financial backing.

Mrs Ganley said “People are very cautious about the economic climate, but there is still good business to be done.” Last year, sales at Taps increased by 37%, while Thompsons saw a 43% increase.

Now the buy out deal is complete, Mrs Ganley will continue as managing director, working alongside her son Brent as operations director.

He said: “We achieved a record year in Thompson/Taps last year and although we hit our targets, it was a challenging year, we had to concentrate on chasing and securing business, making sure our service levels were right. The determination of all our staff meant we hit our targets.”