AS THE AMOUNT OF NEW HOUSING BEING CREATED CONTINUES TO RISE, JOINERS ACROSS THE UK ARE SEEING DEMAND FOR THEIR PRODUCTS.
The last twelve months have been promising for the joinery industry, as a number of factors have combined to create healthy demand for businesses, and according to a leading woodworking body, this is set to continue. We decided to take a look at the reasons behind this.
The joinery sector is inextricably linked to the construction industry. Clearly, if there are more homes, offices, shops and other kinds of buildings being built, there will be more demand for joinery to furnish and kit out these spaces.
The British Woodworking Federation (BWF) keep track of the joinery industry as a whole, as they survey joiners from across the UK, producing a quarterly report that they call the State of Trade survey. Their latest release, for the second quarter of 2016, has shown real positivity and optimism amongst many joiners.
The report shows that 43% of joinery companies reported growth in sales during the previous quarter, and a massive 68% of businesses were predicting an increase in 2016 looking forward.
Iain McIlwee, chief executive of the BWF, spoke in a recent interview about how the joinery industry had overcome recent years of instability and was now looking forward. He said: “I don’t believe the market Is inherently fragile. Volumes are good and investment levels have been encouraging and are helping to keep the industry lean.”
As we previously mentioned, a key demand driver behind the joinery industry is new build housing, both in the public and private sectors. According to the BWF, new build housing is still growing at above 5% per year and offices in particular are providing plenty of work for the industry, across the UK.
Of course, investment is key to the future of the joinery industry, and the BWF have reported that 59% of businesses surveyed had splashed the cash on product improvement and 55% of joiners saying that they anticipated increasing their labour force over the course of the next year.
So, the joinery industry is seeing increased demand for everything from windows to doors, staircases and furniture. We obviously think this is great for us and our customers, and it means that we can continue to work together to create fantastic timber products.
