April Builders’ Merchant value sales up +3.0% year-on-year. Volumes up+3.4%

The latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report, published in June, shows builders’ merchants’ total value sales in April were up +3.0% compared to April 2024. Volumes increased +3.4% year-on-year, while prices eased -0.3%. With one less trading day in the most recent period, like-for-like value sales – which take trading day differences into account – were up +8.2%.

Seven of the twelve categories sold more compared to April last year, with seasonal category Landscaping (+13.3%) well ahead of the rest. Workwear & Safetywear (+8.7%), Miscellaneous (+5.3%) and Heavy Building Materials (+3.7%) performed well. Timber & Joinery Products (+1.7%) also sold more but less than Total Merchants. The weakest categories were Decorating (-3.3%) and Plumbing Heating & Electrical (-3.9%).

Value sales in April were +0.9% above the previous month’s sales. Month-on-month, volume sales were flat at -0.2%, and prices increased +1.0%. Just four categories sold more compared to March, with Landscaping (+15.6%) and Workwear & Safety (+6.0%) ahead the most. The two largest categories – Timber & Joinery Products (+0.7%) and Heavy Building Materials (+0.1%) – sold more but underperformed compared to Total Merchants. With one less trading day in April, like-for-like value sales were +5.9% up.

Total value sales in the 12 months May 2024 to April 2025 were down -2.3% on the previous 12-month period (May 2023 to April 2024). Volume sales dropped -1.5% and prices were -0.8% lower Five of the twelve categories sold more with Workwear & Safetywear and Tools (both +5.3%) out in front, followed by Services (+3.5%), Miscellaneous (+0.8%) and Landscaping (+0.2%). Timber & Joinery Products (-4.2%) and Heavy Building Materials (-2.6%) declined more than Total Merchants, while Renewables & Water Saving (-16.4%) was the weakest category.

Year to date (January to April 2025), total value sales were +1.5% higher than the first four months of 2024.

Mike Rigby, Managing Director of MRA Research which produces the BMBI report says: “ONS data for April shows +0.9% growth in monthly construction output. At a sector level, the best performers were infrastructure new work, up +2.0%, and private housing repair and maintenance, up +1.5%, which is encouraging.

“After a disappointing start to the year, the Chancellor’s June spending review pitched a confusing blizzard of promises to spend, spend, spend. But the independent Institute for Fiscal Affairs, which the Government indirectly funds to inform us about its public spending, confessed it was ‘baffled’ by a speech that ‘did not appear to be a serious effort to provide any useful information to anybody!’

“However, construction appears to be a major beneficiary. The Chancellor pledged £39bn for social and affordable housing – the biggest investment in a generation – in grants for local authorities, private developers and housing associations. But the gap between spending announcements by the Government and completed buildings is long, and simply jaw-dropping when it comes to infrastructure projects. We wholeheartedly support the Government’s aim of fixing its planning problem to build new homes, but the Government’s 1.5m homes pledge is a hostage to fortune that will surely come back to bite it. Britain is seriously short of the skills to build these new homes and it’s questionable if measures to improve them will work in time. It’s also debatable if it has the building materials capacity to build them despite announcements of several major new industry investments which will also take time to come on stream. Meanwhile, according to the Home Builders Federation, planning bottlenecks seem to be growing not decreasing.”

Set up and run by MRA Research, the BMBI – a brand of the Builders Merchants Federation – is a monthly index of builders’ merchant sales, and the most reliable, up-to-date measure of Repair, Maintenance, and Improvement (RMI) activity in the UK. The index is based on actual sales from GfK’s Builders’ Merchant Point of Sale Tracking Data, which captures value sales out to builders from generalist builders’ merchants, accounting for 88% of total sales from builders’ merchants throughout Great Britain. An in-depth review, which includes commentary by sector experts, is provided each quarter.

April’s BMBI report is available to download at www.bmbi.co.uk.