Quarter four was a challenging end to a disappointing year which hit a seven-year low for house completions (excluding Covid). To stay agile in tough market conditions, a lot of merchants reduced stocks to release cash in line with trading volumes.

Despite the awful end to 2024, 2025 is off to a flyer. January sales of roof windows were well up on January last year in stark contrast to other market metrics. After a sudden loss of confidence in January, consumer confidence, measured by the NiQ GfK Consumer Confidence Index, recovered two points to -20 in February, encouraged by a cut in the Bank of England’s interest rate in early February. But confidence is still down on the same time last year.

Downbeat consumers don’t spend on new homes and renovation projects, and this is reflected in the Construction Products Association’s downgraded growth forecast for 2025. Published in January, the CPA winter forecast puts private housing output as rising +6.0% this year, and private RMI increasing +3.0%. However, growth is predicted to come largely in the second half.

So, the improvement in roof window sales is bucking the trend and is particularly impressive given the wet weather and storms we’ve had already in 2025, which have reduced the number of workdays available for roofing contractors. Whatever the reasons behind the change in momentum, we are seeing a shift in merchant sentiment. The brakes are off and they are investing in stock.

We too are getting ready for market growth, when it comes. We are continuing to invest in our business and have bolstered our sales team with a second regional sales director and four sales graduates to support our area teams to drive builder and specification sales. Our OTIF is consistently above 99% so we are backing our sales drive with service excellence. We are continuing to look to future product delivery as well with investments in R&D, quality and automation.

Looking ahead, there are many unknowns. We need clarity on how the UK Government intends to meet the 1.5m homes target over the next five years. We’re also watching to see what impact US tariff changes will have on global trade. It could be an eventful year.