Builders merchants’ sales grow in Q1

The BMF’s Builders Merchants Panel, organised by global market research company GfK, shows growth of 2.3% in Q1, compared to Q4 2014, with total sales of £1.2bn compared to £1.18bn.

Growth for each month of Q1 was as follows - January 17.7%, February 5.2% and March 18.9%.

Three more trading days existed in Q1 compared to Q4. Removing this fact from the equation means sales per trading day were down slightly in Q1 from the previous quarter.

March 2015 was the second most valuable month per trading day (£20.7m) since data collection began last July. Only September 2014 generated more sales per day (£20.9m) with both months having 22 trading days.

Timber and joinery accounted for 21.2% of sales in both Q1 and Q4, while landscaping products’ share rose slightly from 6.5% in Q4 to 6.8% in Q1.

The Builders Merchants Panel represents 80% of the UK’s general builders merchants. The vast majority of the initial panellists are BMF members.

“The Builders Merchants Panel is in its early days and we don’t yet have a full 12 months of data to provide accurate comparisons of trading activity throughout the year,” said BMF managing director John Newcomb.

“But the information generated to date is extremely useful. We can already see positive signals for the market in this dataset. “If you couple this with the 18% year on year upturn in new house registrations reported in the NHBC’s New Home Statistics Review for Q1, there is a strong prospect for further growth in the merchant industry this year.”