November merchant sales show pre-election dip

November merchant sales show pre-election dip

The short trading day month of November saw subdued sales for merchants with the lowest total sales in 10 months.

Year-on-Year

Total Builders’ Merchant sales in November were down 7.4% compared with the same month in 2018. On one less trading day, average sales a day were 3% down. The best performing sectors in November were Renewables & Water Saving (+5.3%) and Workwear & Safetywear (+3.7%). As average sales a day, Renewables & Water Saving were up 10.3%, Workwear & Safetywear up 8.6%.

Tools (-12.7%), Timber & Joinery (-9.6%), Ironmongery (-8.0%), Heavy Building Materials (-7.9%) and Landscaping (-7.4%) were particularly affected, although a little less dramatically on a sales a day basis (8.5%, -5.3%, -3.6%, -3.5% and -3.0% respectively).

Month-on-Month

Compared with the previous month, October 2019, November’s sales were 10.0% down. However, when adjusted for two less trading days in November, sales were down 1.4%.

All product categories were down month-on-month, including Heavy Building Materials (-10.9%), Timber & Joinery (-10.0%) and Ironmongery (-9.8%). Adjusted for trading days, the strongest performing sectors were Workwear & Safetywear (+9.3%) and Kitchens & Bathrooms (+8.0%).

Other periods

Sales in the 12 months December 2018 to November 2019 were down 0.2% on the same period last year. However, adjusting for one less trading day year-to-date sales are slightly ahead at 0.2%.

Index

November’s BMBI index was 113.4, with Plumbing, Heating & Electrical the highest at 134.6.