Expert comments
If 2025 is the first ‘normal’ year since 2020 then it is not great. While April was decent, May and June nullified any momentum that was building. There has been… Read more
Expert comments
After a buoyant pre-sales season and a booming Q1, where our biggest challenge was getting stock to customers fast enough, Q2 continued in the same vein – until it didn’t. April and May saw Covid lockdown levels… Read more
Expert comments
Quarter 1 2025 has been another UK residential construction quarter best described as ‘in recovery’ rather than recovered. Most green shoots of recovery we have experienced in the last two… Read more
Expert comments
The second half of 2024 was marked by some unexpected changes in the manufacturing supply chain. As a result, some sizeable shifts in merchant distribution partners for the UK building… Read more
Expert comments
The recent U.S. tariff changes are creating significant ripple effects across global supply chains, placing additional pressures on UK merchants who already contend with managing steady sales and maintaining margins…. Read more
Expert comments
In a mixed market, Keylite came strongly out of the blocks with excellent sales growth over the prior year. January & February were good, but March was over 30% up… Read more
Expert comments
The paint industry was initially optimistic about the prospects for 2025, but it has been an uncertain start to the year, with global turmoil overshadowing what was predicted to be… Read more
Expert comments
Demand in the fastener and fixings sector has continued to follow the general trends across merchants, with continuing soft demand driven by the sluggish levels of construction and RM&I activity…. Read more
Expert comments
It’s been a robust start to the year, with bagged cement products for RMI in high demand, and bulk aggregate sales also starting well. The forecast was gloomy, but Q1… Read more
Expert comments
It’s been a quarter defined by global market volatility and escalating trade disruption. The impact remains difficult to predict. Decisions being taken outside our industry, and beyond these shores, will… Read more
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.
