Britain’s builders’ merchants are currently going through a phase where they are selling less stuff, but as prices have gone up everywhere, the amount of money going through the tills is  increasing. However, the merchants are paying more for their stock – and face higher trading cost overheads – so may not actually be seeing much profit from the revenue growth.

The latest monthly Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report reveals that builders’ merchants’ sales revenue across Great Britain was 10.0% up in August 2022 compared to the same month in 2021. But volume sales were down 4.2% with 14.8% price inflation driving revenue growth.

The July report, by comparison, found that sales revenue was just 0.2% up, year-on-year, and volume sales  were down 12.8%. This suggests, therefore, that August was a better month for builders’ merchants that July.

Comparing August 2022 to pre-pandemic August 2019, sales volumes were down 1.2% but as prices were up prices were up 31.5% sales revenue was 29.9% higher this year than three years ago.

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