Builders’ Merchants’ Q1 sales hit by Coronavirus restrictions

Builders’ Merchants’ sales in the first quarter of 2020 were knocked by the COVID-19 pandemic and Government measures to contain the virus.

Year-on-year

Total value sales in Q1 2020 (unadjusted for trading days) fell -6.7% compared with the same period in 2019, with all core product categories affected.

Tools (-12.7%) and Timber & Joinery Products (-11.1%) reported the biggest falls on an unadjusted basis. Plumbing, Heating & Electrical (-7.4%), Heavy Building Materials (-6.5%), Decorating (-5.1%) and Kitchens & Bathrooms (-4.1%) were also down. Perhaps not surprisingly, the one outstanding performance was in Workwear and Safetywear up +24.2%.

Quarter-on-quarter

Total value sales dropped marginally by -0.8% in Q1 2020 compared with Q4 2019. Most product categories reported lower value sales over the period. The exceptions were seasonal category landscaping (+7.6%), Workwear and Safetywear (+9.5%) and Renewables & Water Saving (+15.9%).

Index

The quarterly BMBI index for Total Builders Merchants was 105.6, with Workwear & Safetywear ahead of all categories at 129.1.

BMBI Experts

The BMBI panel of leading brands across construction is an integral part of the Index. Positioned as authoritative voices of their markets, BMBI Experts add perspective, meaning and context to the data, with valuable and knowledgeable insights into key areas of construction and building materials supply.

In the Q1 Report, the Experts report on the impact and future implications of COVID-19. A new Expert, Managing Director Andy Scothern eCommonSense, speaks for Website and Product Data Management Solutions, a digital category introduced to reflect the trend to online ordering and digital transformation.

eCommonSense provides award-winning eCommerce and product management software to builders’ merchants and stockists. Many leading merchants including Haldane Fisher, Interline, JT Dove, Kellaway Building Supplies, Lords, Collier & Catchpole, BPS, TJ O’Mahoney and more use the platform.

“It’s the only website solution tailored specifically for the industry that can fully translate the branch business model online,” explains Lucia Di Stazio, Managing Director of MRA Marketing and producers of the BMBI. “eCommonSense provides insight into the rapid growth of a new merchant route to market from a leading industry expert.”

Andy, an award-winning website builder, started his career as a joiner and builder and combined this experience and later career in technology to digitise a number of global brands in and outside the industry. He designed the BMF’s CPD course on trading online.

“eCommonSense is delighted to join the BMBI’s Expert Panel,” adds Andy. The new category reflects the growing importance of digital and online ordering among merchant customers. The trend has been building over the past decade. But the lockdown and the prospect of prolonged socially distanced trading has accelerated the trend, prompting many merchants to quickly kit themselves out for the ‘new normal’.