More than 40 Jewson branches became hubs for mental health support earlier this month, as the
builders merchant teamed with charity Band of Builders to host The Big Brew.
Designed to raise awareness of mental health challenges in the construction industry, The Big
Brew is an annual campaign which encourages tradespeople, installers and builders to come
together over a cup of tea to support one another. It is the third year Jewson has supported the
initiative from Band of Builders, its official charity partner.
In total, 45 Jewson branches hosted a Big Brew, aiming to strike up conversations on the topic of
mental health and promote the free and confidential counselling service that Band of Builders
offers.
This year, the event was held in conjunction with On The Tools, the UK’s largest online construction
community in the UK, which found during recent research that 93% of UK tradespeople have been
impacted by mental ill health in some way. The findings also showed that tradespeople are 26%
more likely than workers in other industries to experience mental ill health, and that less than a
third (32%) of employed UK tradespeople who have experienced mental ill health have access to
free counselling or helplines from their employer.
At Jewson’s Salisbury branch, On The Tools hosted ‘The Big Brew Live’, a live-streamed workshop
with leaders from Jewson and Band of Builders who had a panel-type discussion about how to
break down the stigma surrounding mental health. Other Jewson branches were able to dial in to
join the conversation.
Throughout the day, funds were raised to support Band of Builders to provide free wellbeing
services for members of the UK construction industry. Since Jewson began supporting Band of
Builders in 2019, it has raised more than £250,000 for the charity.
Mark Esling, Chief Commercial Officer for Jewson, said: “Each year, the need to support
campaigns like The Big Brew becomes clearer. The figures shared by On The Tools show that while
mental health is a serious issue for those in our industry, there is a clear lack of support to help
those suffering. We want to do anything we can to try and turn that around.
“What’s important is to begin to find the root causes of mental health challenges for those in our
sector – if we understand them better, we can then explore more specific ways to bring people
back to full health as soon as possible. The Big Brew initiative is a fantastic example of how the
industry can work together to achieve that, and I’m delighted that so many branches were able to
take part this year.”
Gavin Crane, CEO of Band of Builders, said: “Each year The Big Brew is becoming a bigger and
more influential event and that’s thanks in large part to Jewson’s ongoing support. By encouraging
so many branches to get involved and providing a platform from which we can bring together key
leaders from the industry to talk about how to improve mental health, Jewson has enabled us to
reach more people than any other year before with this vital initiative.”
