18 | Sector Market Update: Fencing
SUMMARY
■ One manufacturer adopted a trade only approach
■ The sector is only limited by supply and skills shortages
■ Featheredge boards are up from around £200 to £370-380
■ Regular deliveries have been pre-sold
FENCING PRODUCERS CONTEND WITH FEEDING FRENZY
Fencing manufacturers and their sawmiller suppliers now see some cooling in the market, but it’s been a frantic 14 months trying to satisfy surging demand. Mike Jeffree reports
In a sign of frenetic fencing times, with buoyant demand and restricted raw material availability, one manufacturer has taken radical steps to keep servicing existing customers.
At the start of 2021, it adopted a trade sales only policy. Next, with timber supply tightening further, it stopped taking on new custom altogether. Now it’s taking its first ever summer break to manage stock levels. “In pandemic lockdown two we decided to stay open, but banned domestic customers,” said the company’s managing director. “We could see where things were going with demand and timber supply and we did not want to become a tourist attraction for a day out and a wander about.”
The block on new customers came in April after an unprecedented surge.
“Between January and April we’d entered a further 400 customers on to our system – a 33% increase,” said the producer. “Having continued at a reasonable level throughout lockdown, the fencing market is now limited only by supply of materials and skilled labour,” said Association of Fencing Industries (AFI) chief executive Ian Ripley. “Producers have simply been going flat out to meet demand.”
One major fencing contractor reports barely any business interruption from the start of the pandemic.
Above: Some easing of the market is now reported PHOTO: MARTHALL TREE PRODUCTS
“The fencing market for us went into overdrive from the moment we re-opened on
TTJ | September/October 2021 |
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a pre-order, no collection basis on March 30, 2020,” said its director.
The AFI points out that the UK fencing
market “is not driven by consumers alone” and that industrial and government demand are also key. But what one fencing supplier described as the recent “market feeding frenzy” is in large part attributed by producers to the explosion in home and garden improvement activity. This, they say, is the result of consumers having surplus cash from their drop in leisure spend in the pandemic, and from increased home working. “We’re not at last year’s volumes, but demand is still robust, and our order book takes us into the early part of 2022,” said the fencing contractor. “Demand for our timber buildings is also strong and my feeling is that home improvements are still happening off the back of saved pandemic income.” The Construction Products Association
(CPA) summer forecast in July also sees RMI continuing to perform robustly through this year into next.
“Output in March 2021 was 19.3% higher than pre-Covid times due to the ‘race for space’ – ie demand for a better quality outdoor domestic leisure space and home office work environment,” it stated. “SME contractors are still reporting RMI projects lined up for at least the next six months.” Demand for fencing is also reported to have been driven by a buoyant new build sector and, after growing 20.9% in 2021, the CPA
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