BMF's P&H Merchant Index shows bounce back continues

23 August 2021

Sales through specialist plumbing and heating merchants during the second quarter of the year show the market’s recovery following the adverse impact of the initial Covid lockdown last year. 

Figures released in the BMF's Plumbing & Heating Merchant Index (PHMI) show sales of plumbing and heating products during Q2 2021 were 93.5% higher than in the same three months last year, the trading period worst affected by the pandemic.

Sales in Q2 2021 were also higher than during the same period two years ago, before the pandemic, with the PHMI showing a 4% increase over Q2 2019. Quarter on quarter sales decreased, though this may reflect annual trading patterns within the sector. 

Sales in Q2 2021 were -6.7% lower than in Q1 2021, albeit with two more trading days in the first quarter. Taking extra days out of the equation shows that Q2 average sales a day were down by -3.7% on Q1. Overall, year to date figures for first six months of 2021 were +36.3% higher than the same period in 2020 and +3.8% higher than 2019.

The data for the PHMI is taken solely from P&H specialists, including City Plumbing Supplies, Graham, James Hargreaves Plumbing Deport, PTS and Wolseley, who form part of GfK’s Plumbing & Heating Merchants Panel, and there is no overlap or double counting between the PHMI and the BMF’s established Builders Merchants Building Index which analyses sales at generalist merchants.