16 April 2020. Frank Key Group took the decision to temporarily close its network of five building supplies branches and 15 plant and tool hire depots in March, in an attempt to help control the spread of Covid-19, placing the safety and well-being of our staff, customers and business partners at the heart of this decision. 

On our last update (on 8th April) we announced we were looking at ways to recommence trade in some capacity following the Government’s request for the supply chain to keep the construction industry moving.  This was provided we could do so in a manner that respects the social distancing rules and ensures our staff and customer safety and wellbeing is prioritised. 

On Thursday 16th April we will be fulfilling orders from our Daybrook branch for building supplies and from Daybrook, Halifax and Leeds for plant & tool hire. Please note, our sites will remain closed and the service provided is delivery only, no collections are available at this time.  

After reviewing the operation of the sites opening tomorrow, we are looking to offer a similar service for both building supplies and plant and tool hire at our Somercotes and Sheffield depots on Monday 20th April. 

Please note, the above is subject to changes in accordance with Government advice and our assessment of the safety of our staff, so please bear with us. 


Building Supplies 

Daybrook will be operating between 7am and 4pm, Monday to Friday, initially. The branch will be running a reduced fleet with a skeleton staff, to ensure our staff are kept safe and can follow the social distancing guidelines. We will look to increase capacity when we are confident that in doing so we can continue to observe these principles. 

Our supply chain is also quite weak, with a number of key manufacturers currently closed, meaning some products may not be available (a good example is British Gypsum and there is a major shortage of bags of powdered plaster products). 

We appreciate there is likely to be high demand for products and it is likely there will be a considerable wait for deliveries, but we will try our best to help where we can. We will be prioritising the customers who kindly agreed to wait for deliveries when we could not fulfil them prior to our covid-19 closure. 

For the initial period we will only be taking enquires through our website by clicking here and will contact you in return as soon as we can. Please do not call or visit the branch as it closed to customers. 


Plant & Tool Hire 

Branches remain closed to the trade and public as we operate under the social distancing rules set out by the government, with all hire equipment being delivered and collected using our own transport.  

Normal branch opening hours and branch contact numbers and emails apply, albeit with branches operating with reduce staff numbers for safety reasons, please bear with us.  


Hire Branches operating from Thursday 16/4/2020 

Halifax[01422 254789] - Serving Yorkshire and Lancashire 
Leeds[0113 2360560] - Serving Yorkshire
Nottingham Daybrook[0115 9649001] - Serving Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire
Sheffield[0114 2724001] - Serving Sheffield and South Yorkshire area
Somercotes[01773 605208] - Serving Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire
Rotherham[01709 514000] - requirements serviced from Sheffield Hire
NHD[0800 344 344 or 01422 254789] - National Hire Direct


General Safety Guidelines COVID 19 

Safety is top priority at Frank Key for both our staff and customers. Therefore, in an effort to safeguard all individuals whilst carrying out our deliveries, we have instructed our drivers to strictly maintain the 2m social distancing guidelines at all times, and politely ask that our customers respect this and adhere to the same. 

This includes avoiding hand-shakes and nudging of elbows. All communication between our driver and you (our customer) should be done so whilst maintaining the 2m separation rule. 

You will notice our drivers will be wearing gloves, and a mask and will sanitise their vehicles before and after deliveries to ensure the risk of contamination is minimalised. 

During this period, our delivery service is strictly kerbside only, in order to ensure our drivers can adhere to the 2m social distancing measures and I'm sure you appreciate the reasons for this. 


Thank You 

Thank you everyone for your patience and understanding during this unprecedented period. We completely understand the frustrations around struggling to obtain materials for essential work and our team are working very hard to help as best we can. 

We are constantly reviewing our operations and we hope to be able to increase our capacity and improve our offering as soon as possible. 

Stay safe everyone.