The first quarter of 2024 has indeed tested the mettle of the UK construction industry, showcasing resilience amidst challenges such as supply chain disruptions due to Red Sea blockages and… Read more

We saw a tentative start to 2024 as the effects of poor weather dampened merchant sales volumes during the first quarter. House building is still an issue, and it remains… Read more

It’s been a very challenging first quarter for paving sales.  Demand has been subdued, mostly due to the wet weather. One landscaper in Wales remarked to me that they had… Read more

As the macro-economic picture stabilises and threatens to improve, construction related businesses are all faced with the promise of better times sometime in the coming months. However, if New Domestic… Read more

Quarter 4 2023 will be remembered as the period when house building activity hit a low and bounced back. There was a continuing dearth of housing starts following a stock… Read more

Quarter 4 accurately reflected a year which has been preciously short of good economic news for the UK in general and for the construction sector in particular. The effect of… Read more

Given the current employment shortage crisis in the building materials supply sector, there is a growing need to give tradespeople the power to self-serve. With a shortage of skills and… Read more

Our Technical teams have been studying the newly released Future Homes Standard consultation document, which states that roof windows must achieve a U Value of 1.2 W/m2K, significantly lower than… Read more

At the end of 2023 the trade paint market stood at 1.5% growth year-on-year, after mostly flat Q4 volume sales. In contrast, the trade woodcare market attained growth of 9%… Read more

The subdued market conditions seen in Q2 and Q3 have continued through into Q4, with both new construction and RM&I down year-on-year. This has impacted directly on volumes in fasteners… Read more