Pro Tiler Tools, a Northampton supplier of tiling tools and materials, has been shortlisted in five separate UK business award categories this year, spanning national, regional and high-growth competitions. The nominations recognise a company that now ships from a purpose-built, 140,000 square foot warehouse and employs more than 70 people.
The celebration leaves out one detail. Topps Tiles, the London-listed tile retailer, bought majority control of Pro Tiler Tools back in 2022. The award run now looks like a payoff on that bet, and it is landing while Topps Tiles itself closes stores and works through a competition investigation.
Five Categories, One Northamptonshire Warehouse
The shortlistings span three different award programmes. Pro Tiler Tools is a finalist in the SME National Business Awards, which celebrate small and medium-sized enterprises, in both its Business Innovation Award and Business of the Year categories. It has also reached the finals of the Northamptonshire Business Awards and the Growing Business Awards, doubling up in two categories there.
- SME National Business Awards, Business Innovation Award
- SME National Business Awards, Business of the Year for companies with more than 50 employees
- Northamptonshire Business Awards, High Growth Business of the Year
- Growing Business Awards, High Growth Midlands Business of the Year
- Growing Business Awards, Growing Business of the Year in the 25 million to 50 million pound turnover band
Managing director Sam Bucknall framed the run as a team effort rather than a corporate milestone.
To be shortlisted in five prestigious award categories is a fantastic achievement and one we’re incredibly proud of. These nominations reflect the hard work, commitment and passion of every member of our team, as well as the loyalty of our customers and suppliers who continue to support our journey.
Bucknall, whose family founded the company, added that the business had invested significantly in its people, facilities, technology and product development, and called the recognition incredibly rewarding.
A Tiler-Founded Business Built From Nothing
Pro Tiler Tools started in 2008, founded by the Bucknall family from an industrial unit smaller than 1,000 square feet. It grew into a nationwide trade supplier of tiling tools, adhesives and equipment, built partly on what it markets as a 9pm next-day dispatch service, a cutoff aimed squarely at tradespeople placing last-minute orders.
The company has since expanded its own-brand PREMTOOL tool range, kept investing in apprenticeship places and continued backing local charities and community projects around Northampton. Its current headquarters, the 140,000 square foot site at Prologis Park Pineham, opened to a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the summer of 2025.
None of that growth happened inside an independent company, though. Three years before the ribbon was cut, Pro Tiler Tools sold control of itself.
The 5.3 Million Pound Line Nobody Mentioned
In March 2022, Topps Tiles bought 60% of Pro Tiler Ltd for an initial £5.3 million cash deal for 60%, plus a small closing adjustment. The agreement also set up put-and-call options on the remaining 40%, exercisable from March 2024 and priced against an agreed multiple of Pro Tiler’s future profits.
Topps Tiles called it an important first step into running a specialist online trade business alongside its retail and commercial brands, and later credited a chunk of that year’s group growth to the Pro Tiler purchase and a related Tile Warehouse launch. The timeline below shows how quickly the acquired business scaled after that.
- 2008: The Bucknall family founds the business from an industrial unit smaller than 1,000 square feet.
- March 2022: Topps Tiles buys 60% of Pro Tiler Ltd for £5.3 million in cash, with an option on the remaining 40% from 2024.
- 2025: Pro Tiler Tools opens its purpose-built 140,000 square foot headquarters at Prologis Park Pineham.
- 2026: The company is shortlisted in five national and regional business award categories.
None of the five award shortlists mention Topps Tiles by name. The nominating categories reward Pro Tiler Tools as a standalone growth story, which by turnover and headcount it still functionally is, even though a public company’s shareholders now sit behind most of the upside.
Two Speeds Inside the Same Group
Topps Tiles, whose shares trade publicly under the ticker TPT, has not had an easy year. Group revenue for the third quarter of its 2026 financial year came to £75.6 million, down 1.8% against the same period last year, hurt by weak trading conditions and store closures.
Much of that pressure traces back to CTD, the group’s commercial trade chain, which has been working through a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA, the UK’s antitrust regulator) investigation. CTD now trades from 22 stores, down from 31 the year before, after commercial property decisions and a CMA-driven requirement to dispose of four sites. Group revenue excluding CTD actually grew year on year, though growth slowed as the year went on.
| Segment | 2026 signal | Headline number |
|---|---|---|
| Pro Tiler Tools (specialist trade arm) | Five national and regional award shortlists | Turnover in the 25 million to 50 million pound band; more than 70 jobs |
| CTD stores (Topps Tiles Group) | Store count cut after a competition investigation | 22 stores, down from 31 a year earlier |
| Topps Tiles Group overall | Third-quarter revenue slipped against last year | £75.6 million, down 1.8% |
Set side by side, the group’s own numbers tell two different stories at once. A high street and commercial store estate is shrinking under regulatory pressure, while the small trade-tools operation it bought for a fraction of its market value is racking up national recognition.
Why Is the Tiling Trade So Short of Workers?
The UK construction sector needs roughly 47,860 extra workers every year through 2029 to keep pace with demand, according to the CITB (Construction Industry Training Board, the industry’s statutory training body), which calls the shortfall a long-term structural problem driven by retirements. Tilers rank among the hardest-hit trades, grouped alongside slaters and roofers in the CITB’s own assessment.
Over five years, that gap adds up to roughly 239,300 people the industry needs to recruit and train just to stand still. CITB has responded with an Accelerated Apprenticeships scheme, cutting apprenticeship training condensed to 14 to 18 months in an effort to feed the government’s target of 1.5 million new homes by 2029.
Pro Tiler Tools has followed similar logic on a much smaller scale, expanding its own apprenticeship intake as part of the investment programme Bucknall points to. A specialist supplier training its own tilers is a direct response to a shortage the whole sector is watching climb.
The Trophies Arrive in November
The SME National Business Awards will hand out its trophies on Friday, November 6, at the Leonardo Royal London Tower Bridge Hotel, marking a tenth anniversary ceremony set for November. The Northamptonshire Business Awards and the Growing Business Awards both crown their winners later in the autumn season, with dates still to be confirmed publicly.
Bucknall and his staff will find out across three separate nights whether five shortlistings turn into five trophies. Topps Tiles, whose name will not appear on any of the winners’ certificates, will be watching the same results land on its own balance sheet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Owns Pro Tiler Tools?
Topps Tiles Plc, the London-listed tile retailer, bought 60% of Pro Tiler Ltd in March 2022 for £5.3 million and holds an option mechanism over the remaining 40% dating from 2024. The acquired group trades through three linked websites: protilertools.co.uk, northantstools.co.uk and premiumtiletrim.co.uk.
How Fast Has Pro Tiler Tools Grown Since 2008?
The company started in an industrial unit smaller than 1,000 square feet and now operates from a 140,000 square foot headquarters, over 140 times its original floor space. Staff numbers have climbed from around 60 at last year’s headquarters opening to more than 70 today.
What Is the Difference Between the Three Award Programmes Pro Tiler Tools Entered?
The SME National Business Awards judge UK businesses nationally across categories split by factors like employee count and innovation. The Northamptonshire Business Awards celebrate firms within that single county. The Growing Business Awards split entrants by growth stage and region, which is how Pro Tiler Tools ended up shortlisted for both a Midlands category and a turnover-banded category in the same programme.
What Is CITB’s Accelerated Apprenticeships Programme?
It is a fast-track training route aiming for 1,680 apprenticeship starts across four years in homebuilding trades including bricklaying, carpentry and roofing, designed to get new workers qualified in 14 to 18 months instead of the traditional timeline.
What Is PREMTOOL?
PREMTOOL is Pro Tiler Tools’ own-brand range of tiling tools. Launching a private label lets a trade distributor keep margin in-house that would otherwise go to third-party tool manufacturers, a common move among specialist suppliers scaling past their startup years.
