Latest figures from a leading trade body reveal that the West Midlands has moved into the top tier of an index measuring sales performance at builders’ merchants across Britain.
Quarter three results put the region third in the latest results from the Builders Merchants Federation’s Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI), from 11 areas nationwide.
The West Midlands shows a 3.4 per cent year-on-year growth for quarter three in total builders’ merchant value sales.
BMF’s Regional Chairman for the West Midlands, James Hipkins, is MD of Emerys, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent and Telford.
Mr Hipkins said: “It’s a very positive result for the West Midlands.”
The BMF’s BMBI is seen as a gold standard in the building materials sector to measure sales activity.
International analytics specialist GfK provides BMBI with point of sale tracking data drawn from over 80 per cent of builders merchants’ sales throughout the country, across the 11 defined areas in Wales, Scotland and England.
Mr John Newcomb, CEO of the BMF, said: “The BMBI report features a wealth of data on regional performance and the West Midlands has pitched in this quarter with strong results compared to the national average.
“BMBI shows how Britain’s builders’ merchants perform in different parts of the country, reflecting the ‘regional health’ of construction.
“It shows the positive economic impact of this vital sector across the West Midlands.”
The value of the UK building materials market overall is £56 billion, which is approximately one third of the total construction industry in the UK.
