After a strong start to the year, growing uncertainty around Brexit has led to a marked slowdown in merchants’ sales.
Year-on-year
Total builders merchants value sales in August 2019 were down 5.6% compared with the same period in 2018, on one less trading day. When adjusted for trading days, the decline was 1.1% over the same period.
The best performing sector in August was kitchens and bathrooms, which increased by 3% year-on-year, on an adjusted basis. Other sectors that recorded positive growth on an equal number of trading days included plumbing, heating and electrical ( up by 2.3%), work wear and safety wear (up by 1.8%) and ironmongery (up by 1.5%).
Timber and joinery, however, was down by 5.2% in August 2019 compared with the same month last year.
Month-on-month
Compared with July 2019, total builders merchants value sales were down 11.4% in August this year. However, when adjusted for the two-day trading difference, the decline was 2.9%.
On the same adjusted basis, all product categories saw sales drop in the month of August with landscaping (down by 9.5%), timber and joinery (down by 2.1%) and heavy building materials (down by 3%) affected the most.
Other Periods
Sales in the rolling 12 months from September 2018 to August 2019 were up by 1.6% on the same period last year.
Year-to-date sales (from January to August 2019) also remained positive at +1.2% compared to January to August 2018, with timber and joinery 0.9% ahead of last year.
Index
August’s BMBI index was 117.7, with landscaping the highest category at 136.7. The timber and joinery index for August was 117.0.
