Builders Merchant sales slide -5.7% as volumes drop -12.1% year-on-year

The latest figures from the Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI), published in January, reveal that builders’ merchants’ value sales were down -5.7% in November 2023 compared to the same month in 2022, with volume sales falling -12.1% and prices increasing +7.2%.

Year-on-Year
Compared to November 2022, six of the twelve categories sold more in November 2023 compared to the previous year. But falling value sales in the three largest categories contributed to an overall decline in volumes, with heavy building materials (-7.0%), landscaping (-7.4%) and timber and joinery products (-10.9%) all selling less.

Month-on-month
Total merchant sales were down -4.4% in November compared to October 2023. Volume sales decreased -7.5% and prices increased +3.4%. There was no difference in trading days. Seasonal category landscaping was the weakest (-14.2%).

Year to date
Total merchant sales in the year to date (January to November 2023) were -4.9% down on the same period in 2022. Volume sales were down -13.8% while prices rose +10.3%. With two more trading days in the most recent period, like-for-like sales were -5.7% lower. Nine of the twelve categories sold more, with renewables and water saving (+31.2%) the only standout. Again, the three largest categories – heavy building materials (-2.8%), landscaping (-12.2%) and timber and joinery products Products (-14.6%) – each sold less.

Derrick McFarland, managing director at Keystone Group UK and BMBI’s Expert for Steel Lintels said: “The last few months of 2023 offered no optimism from the continued slide in volumes compared to the previous year. We can only be hopeful that with a freeze on interest rates and inflation reducing, at some point in the future new house building and home improvements will once again stimulate or arrest the current volume slide. However, the next few months will only get more challenging before that improvement starts to ooze through.

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