John Duffin, Managing Director Keylite Roof Windows is BMBI’s Expert for Roof Windows

With so many political and economic factors completely up in the air at present it is fair to say ‘change’ has become the new normal. In this respect it’s a good time for merchants and manufacturers to be actively engaged with customers and in-tune with their changing needs.

It’s positive that the BMBI index continues to show modest growth. Roof Windows are doing better than the market average with growth into double figures holding up in quarter 2 reflecting the relative strength of RMI.

There is a regional variation in performance demonstrated by the fact that average house prices in the UK vary by a factor of almost four between the highest and the lowest region, and London more than twice the national average.

The industry faces the double whammy of an aging construction work force and likely Brexit restrictions on future labour movement. Keylite is reacting by developing new, highly efficient, products which are simple to install and meet the performance needs of end users. We believe, launching new, added value products is the best way to make a positive impact in the market and innovation should be the industry’s prime focus.

For merchants, these new, added value products are a chance to engage and stay relevant with customers but merchants must also plan to develop new ways to service a more tech savvy customer. This will become a growing challenge as the market turns to look increasingly towards alternative supply channels to the traditional trade counter queue.

Brexit’s impact on Sterling is already a reality, forcing price increases and inevitably weakening consumer spending power in the coming year as prices creep up in contrast to wages. We all face challenges ahead and the message has to be that, in this changing world, we need to ‘develop, or risk becoming irrelevant’.

See the full Q2 Report here: https://www.bmbi.co.uk/the-index/