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Lakes
Lakes is a leading manufacturer and supplier of showering spaces, which includes shower doors and bath screens. The company sells exclusively through builders’ and plumbers’ merchants, and retail bathroom stockists.
Established in 1986, the family business has a long-standing reputation for top customer service, stock availability and speed of delivery, backed by a unique ‘no quibble guarantee’ for added customer reassurance. Its products range from timeless classics to contemporary designs catering for all market requirements. Innovations include Lakes’ optically superior PureVueHD glass and AllClear® stay-clean coating.
PureVueHD glass was introduced with low iron content to remove the green hue found in standard glass, ensuring clearer, lighter and brighter glass. AllClear® is a protective coating applied to both sides of the glass so your showering space stays looking great, for longer and with minimal effort. Uniquely, both innovations are available as standard across Lakes’ Classic, Coastline and Island Collections.
Visit: https://lakesshoweringspaces.com/
Follow @LakesForLife
Launched in 2015, the award winning monthly Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report is the only reliable measure of repair, maintenance & improvement (RMI) activity in the UK. Filling an important gap, it can be widely used in construction, and by economists, Government, national media, commentators and influencers outside the industry.
Lakes Comment: Q1 2022
This year has got off to a stuttering start in Q1 as rising inflation, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and labour shortages contribute to new challenges for the KBB industry to negotiate.
Inflation is a major worry for KBB suppliers. Over the coming months, we expect consumers to be more cautious and selective in their spending and focusing on the essentials, particularly among younger homeowners (under 50s), those whose outgoings are rising faster than their incomes, and households on lower earnings.
While the cost of living stays high, we expect KBB buyers to focus on products which save money in the longer term. For example, showers that use half the water, require half the heating, so where homeowners are investing, showers may become even more popular than baths.
The outbreak of war in Ukraine has also undermined consumer confidence (according to GfK) which will hit demand for bigger RMI projects, such as a new bathroom.
The war has not had a direct impact on the supply of showering spaces or bathroom products, but the ensuing energy crisis has. China opened more mines to increase the nation’s energy output from coal, and rationed energy usage in the short term by shutting power supplies to factories on certain days of the week. This knocked the supply of a wide range of products including bathroom components, hardware (handles, hinges, locks etc) and aluminium profiles.
Supplies are also being hindered by lags in international freight, coupled with congestion and covid restrictions in large ports like Shanghai. You may have seen posts on LinkedIn showing the approaches to Shanghai port chock-a-block with vessels trying to get in and out.
At the very end of Q1, BiKBBI reported a positive uptake on its new apprentice programme. This is encouraging as the UK skills shortage is a growing problem which needs addressing now and in the longer term. Unless the industry’s ageing workforce is replaced and fresh talent brought in to fill the places of European workers who left following Brexit and Covid, meeting demand for bathroom installations in reasonable timeframes will be impossible.