Reports

The award winning monthly Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report is the only reliable measure of repair, maintenance & improvement (RMI) activity in the UK. Set up in 2015 by MRA, in partnership with the BMF and GfK, the BMBI report uses sales-out data from GfK’s General Builders’ Merchants Panel and includes a panel of leading industry experts who speak for and explain their markets.

The Pulse is a monthly trends survey that tracks builders’ merchants’ confidence and prospects over time. The survey captures merchants’ views of future prospects in terms of sales expectations, confidence in their business, confidence in the market, and the key issues and problems they experience. The survey is produced by MRA Research and the results are published in the Professional Builders Merchants magazine each month.

The Plumbing & Heating Merchant Index (PHMI) is the first to analyse point of sales data collated from specialist plumbing & heating merchants and to chart their performance month-to-month. A report based on data from GfK’s Plumbing & Heating Merchant Panel with combined annual sales of £3bn is produced monthly by MRA Research for the Builders Merchants Federation. 

The Bathroom Pulse is a monthly trends survey that tracks the sales expectations, confidents and prospects of plumbing and heating merchants and retail bathroom specialists. Launched in partnership with the Bathroom Manufacturers Association (BMA), the survey is part of The Pulse series of market trends. The survey was piloted in August 2022 and the first wave completed in November 2022.

Want a quick, cost-effective insight tool into the bathroom, plumbing and heating or the builders’ merchants sectors? MRA’s Omnibus Surveys provide effective, targeted research alongside rapid analyses and results to improve marketing.

For this years’ Leading Lights feature in Builders’ Merchants News, MRA Research spoke to builders’ merchants and BMBI Experts for their views on industry issues and the main challenges and opportunities in 2021. The survey was conducted and produced by MRA Research exclusively for Builders’ Merchants News Leading Lights. 

Waterproof wall panels, also known as ‘wetwall’ panels, have become increasingly popular as a substitute for tiles in bathrooms, and have taken market share from the tiles market in recent years. We decided to undertake some research into the waterproof panels market to find out what the reasons for this growth are, and at what rate the market is growing. The market summary report can be downloaded for free.

During March 2019, MRA Research asked merchants about their views on Brexit and what they thought the impact would be – on the UK as a whole, on the building industry and also on the company they work for. At the same time, MRA also polled suppliers and other stakeholders in the construction industry to find out what their views were. The results have been compiled into two separate reports that can be downloaded for free.