ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the third case study firm. This is Merchant Co., a national organisation supplying materials to the building trade, which has just under 150 outlets across the UK. The company has a long history in the builders’ merchant market, having started trading in 1936 as a Glasgowbased family enterprise. Its growth occurred mainly in the 1970s, with a strategy of acquisition of smaller building suppliers, and in the 1980s started to venture into home DIY products through its established branch outlets. As a whole the organisation employs 2,800 people; a reduction from a peak figure of over 4,400, which occurred from a reorganisation and a redundancy programme that took place in the mid 1990s. The focus of our study at Merchant Co. is based on the company’s head office site in North Yorkshire, which employs 120 people covering distribution, warehouse staff, contract fitters, clerical and retail employees, as well as the company’s personnel and management functions. Thus, unlike the two previous case studies, Merchant Co. is a very different organisation in terms of its size, structure, centralised management activity and occupational categories. As with the previous case studies, the key features of the employment relationship at Merchant Co. are set out within the conceptual framework given in Chapter 2. This is then followed by an assessment of the factors influencing the relationship in terms of the nature of work, management style and employee voice.
