The latest Builders Merchants Building Index (BMBI) report shows value sales by Britain’s builders’ merchants in November 2020 achieving their largest year-on-year increase since March 2019. This despite stricter Covid-19 restrictions being in place for most of the month. Timber and joinery products and landscaping were significantly ahead of other product categories, and have consistently performed above the total index since the start of the pandemic and through the recovery phase, somewhat buoyed by price increases.
Year-on-year
With builders heeding the government’s directive to keep construction sites open, total sales in November 2020 were 9% higher than in November 2019. Growth over the period was driven primarily by landscaping (+29.3%) and timber and joinery products (+16.3%).
Quarter-on-quarter
Total sales in the three months September to November 2020 were 5.7% higher than the same three months in 2019. Landscaping (+25.6%) was particularly strong, with timber and joinery products (+10.6%) also doing well. Compared with the previous three months (June to August 2020), total sales were up 3.3% with timber and joinery reporting growth of 8.5%. All but one category sold more over the period.
Month-on-month
Month-on-month data shows that the strongest increases compared to October were in the renewables and water saving (+4.6%) and kitchens and bathrooms (+2.9%) categories. Timber and joinery sales dropped marginally (-0.8%).
Index
November’s BMBI index was 123.5, with timber and joinery products strongest at 139.9.
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