PERHAPS it pays not to dwell too much on the future if the success of Thorncliffe Building Supplies is anything to go by.
“One thing has led to another. There has been no masterplan,” said Tim Harper, the one-time farmer who is now director of one of the largest independent builder’s merchants in North Wales and the Northwest of England with an 84 strong fleet.
He started the business in 1987 with just the one tractor and trailer. “I remember queueing up at the docks, getting some timber, going back to the farm and making fence panels,” he recalled. “I was doing them in between milking the cows and feeding the pigs.”
