.png)
The fall in sales in the first three months of 2023 was attributed to a combination of inclement weather and a slowdown in the housing market.
With one more trading day in 2023’s first quarter, like-for-like value sales were 3.8% down on 2022 despite 16.9% price inflation.
Nine of the 12 categories sold more in Q1 2023 compared to the previous year. Sales revenue from renewables & water saving products were up 42% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to Q1 2022. Revenue from decorating products was up 14% and plumbing, heating & electrical was up 13%.
Revenue from landscaping products and materials was down more than 18% in the first quarter while timber & joinery products were down 15.
Comparing Q1 2023 with the three months immediately before it, Q4 2022, revenue was up 5.8% and volumes up more marginally by 0.6%; prices rose 5.2%. However, there were five more trading days in the most recent period; overall like-for-like revenue was down 2.5% quarter-on-quarter.
First quarter numbers were impacted by 19.7% year-on-year decline in volumes in March. Despite a 16.2% hike in prices over the course of the year, March sales revenue was down 6.7%.
Product categories seeing year-on-year revenue growth in March included renewables & water saving (up 27%), workwear & safetywear (up 20%), plumbing, heating & electrical (up 8%), decorating (8%) and kitchens & bathrooms (7%) also grew. Revenue from heavy building materials was down nearly 2%, timber & joinery products were down 17.0% and landscaping was down by more than 25%.
Total merchant sales revenue in March 2023 was 14.8% up on February 2023. Volumes were up 13.2% and price inflation was 1.4%.
Mike Rigby of MRA Research, who produces this report each month, said: “Before the turn of the year, the industry was bracing itself for a tough 12 months and 2023 hasn’t failed to deliver. The latest BMBI figures show a drop in year-on-year value sales, with a steep decline in volumes offset by an equally sharp increase in prices.
“Wet and cold weather in Q1 was surely responsible for some of the drop in demand, particularly for heavy building materials. House-building starts fell again at the turn of the year, as mortgage approvals hit a record low, further kicking the new build housing sector while it was down. But consumer confidence is steadily climbing (-30 in April’s GfK Consumer Confidence Index, up from -45 in January) and with a bit of positive movement in inflation and interest rates, we can look forward to better days ahead. The repair, maintain and improve (RMI) market is showing signs of buoyancy so perhaps there will be more to shout about in Q2.”
Developed and run by MRA Research, the Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) – a brand of the Builders Merchant Federation – is a monthly report of builders’ merchant sales. Data are taken from GfK’s builders’ merchant point of sale tracking data, which captures value sales out to builders from generalist builders’ merchants, accounting for more than 80% of total sales from builders’ merchants throughout Great Britain. It is thus considered a reliable indicator of building repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) activity in the UK.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
