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Moving Forward Out of Lockdown
Will Jones, chief operating officer of the British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) takes stock of the housewares situation now that the UK lockdown has eased.
D
espite the fact that as I write, we are dealing with the English Lockdown 2, it’s clear that whether we look at ONS data
or market data from the many other sources which BHETA can tap into, we are looking at some significant signs of recovery. Economic predications for 2020 are now considerably less dire than we saw in the earlier stages of the first Lockdown.
September saw the fifth consecutive month
of growth in the volume of overall retail sales, resulting in an increase of 5.5% when compared with February’s pre-pandemic level. We also see growth in GDP, albeit it is still lower than in February. A positive aspect for home enhancement was what the ONS has termed ‘strong growth’ in non-food sales.
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A key factor in all of this is the growth in online sales as a proportion of the whole. Now at 27.5%, compared with 20.1% reported in February, this is a record in terms of overall sales. Homewares specifically will be the second fastest online growth sector this year, with online sales growth of 43% now being forecast for the end of 2020, according to data analysts, GlobalData.
In fact, in terms of what all this could add
up to for the housewares sector, whereas GlobalData was forecasting a market decline of a disastrous – 23.7%, the company is now suggesting that this might look more like -6.2% over the year. Not exactly positive in real terms, but considerably better than it might have been. With broader indicators like mortgage
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HousewaresLive.net
approvals and the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) also showing growth, we may have turned a corner, and I really hope that that proves to be the case. One slight caution is that we do not yet know how a UK unemployment rate of 4.5% will ultimately affect the market. The best approach now is to do everything we can to promote a continuation of the nation’s new love affair with home cooking and baking and keep on providing consumers with innovative products.
To find out more about BHETA and BHETA’s popular series of networking and business support webinars, contact Nicola Adams in BHETA Member Services on
una@bheta.co.uk or on u07946 078566
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twitter.com/Housewaresnews November/December 2020
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