On Saturday 9th November, the City celebrated the appointment of a new Lord Mayor of London at the world famous Lord Mayor’s Show. The Show is a two mile long annual City spectacular. This year it will be even more spectacular as the Company will have its own Float to support the new Lord Mayor Elect Alderman Fiona Woolf CBE, who is an Honorary Member.
The Float is an eye-catching promotion of Builders’ Merchanting through the ages. It also supports the Get Britain Building campaign. Many people don’t know that most of Britain’s building materials for homes, roads, public sector and commercial buildings are supplied through builders’ merchants, and so the Company has a new strapline to make the point: Supplying Britain’s Building Needs. It will be on banners, vehicle sides and giveaways.
A good eye-catching float with a clear message has the potential to be seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors at the Show and, via press and television, can reach an audience of millions. So, WCoBM has briefed BBC Researchers in the hope it will catch their eye and the cameras will linger on the Float and its supporters to get the message across.
Floats are expensive but the Company will cover its costs and, with help from sponsors, even make a surplus for the Company and its charities.
Six vehicles in the Float show ‘Builders’ Merchants through the Ages’ starting with a Handcart circa 1813; Ridgeons’ Dray drawn by two Suffolk Punch Horses; Buildbase’s Model T 1920; Buttle’s 1934 truck; a Calor Gas 1950s truck; and a large, brand new Lawsons’ flat-bed.
Thirty Liverymen in long brown ‘Arkwright’ work coats, as worn by Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett in the popular ‘Open All Hours’ TV comedy, with flat caps and traditional pencils tucked behind their ears will march with the vehicles. To add fun there will be 28 sponsors in imaginative costumes representing well known building materials from toilet pans to windows.
Will the aspiring politician and future Prime Minister in the toilet pan chase the paint brush, and will she regret photos of this youthful indiscretion when she is a Minister?
Will the Dulux paint can chase the Commercial Director in the fetching yellow Lafarge cement bag, or will the ACO drainage connector in pink tights be bullied off the road by the Chief Operating Officer in her rather decorative Naylors pipework? Other well-known brands vying for TV attention are IKO, LG Harris, Fakro, Keylite, Knauf Insulation, Catnic Lintels, Monument, and Hunter rainwater and drainage.
A free App (‘Build Merch’) created by the NMBS is available in Apple’s App Store or Google Play. People can use the App to find a builders’ merchant anywhere in the country.
Over 150 Builders’ Merchant Liverymen, Freemen and guests (wearing bright yellow hard hats and waving yellow rulers) will be in North Stand by St Pauls as the new Lord Mayor stops to bow to them, at which point they will throw their yellow hats in the air and cheer like mad. The cameras should love it!
You can follow the Worshipful Company on Twitter @WCoBM and all merchants and suppliers are invited to come along to support the industry along the route. It will be a great day out, and it’s in a good cause.
