Merchants’ sales break records in July

Year on year
Total Builders Merchant value sales were up 8.3% in July compared with July 2017, helped by one more trading day this year. Five categories did better, with Timber & Joinery Products (+12.7%) the top performer and Landscaping (+11.2%) close behind. Three categories achieved their highest monthly sales in the four years BMBI data has been compiled: Heavy Building Materials, Timber & Joinery Products and Decorating.
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Average sales a day, which take trading day differences into account were up 3.3% on July last year.

Month on month
Overall sales in July were 1.1% higher than in June, helped by one extra trading day this month. Six categories did better, with Timber & Joinery Products, Ironmongery and Decorating all 3.9% higher. Seasonal category, Landscaping was weakest (-4.6%).

Average sales a day in July were 3.5% lower than in June.

Other periods
The first seven months of 2018 were 4.6% ahead of the same period in 2017, with one additional trading day this year. Plumbing, Heating & Electrical (+10.4%) did best, with Timber & Joinery Products (+7.0%) and Kitchens & Bathrooms (+5.1%) also performing well. Average sales a day for January to July were up 3.9% on the same months last year.

The rolling 12 months August 2017 to July 2018 were 5.0% above the same period a year earlier. Plumbing, Heating & Electrical (+9.3%) was strongest and all categories sold more.

Index
July’s BMBI index was 129.1, with one additional trading day. Landscaping was top (156.6) followed by Timber & Joinery Products (131.1) and Heavy Building Materials (128.8). Ten of the 12 categories exceeded 100.