NEWSROUND
Wolseley buys back Irish businesses
Activity buoyant, but strong headwinds ahead, warns CPA
NEWS IN BRIEF
Plumbers merchant Wolseley UK has bought Irish heating, plumbing, tiling and bathroom businesses The Heat Merchants, and Hevac Group, and their subsidiaries.
The Heat Merchants business comes with Tubs & Tiles, the largest tile and bathroom retailer in Ireland, with 12 showrooms nationwide plus established ecommerce an commercial channels.
Heat Merchants, which focuses on the heating and plumbing sector, has 31 branches all across Ireland together with a central warehouse and distribution hub in Athlone.
Heat Merchants and Tubs
& Tiles have been owned by Wolseley in the past and were sold off in 2010. The acquisition is subject to clearance from the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. The transaction also includes the acquisition of Tube Company of Ireland Ltd, Polytherm Heating Systems Ltd, Origen Energy Limited and Aluminox Ltd, which are all part of the Hevac Group.
Simon Oakland, CEO
Wolseley UK, said: “This is a very exciting announcement for Wolseley, currently undergoing an ambitious growth strategy through business acquisition and this latest announcement is a key part of this.”
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The Construction Products Association sees a dramatic slowing in growth, with uncertainty ahead as global issues start to affect the UK market. The predicted 2.8% growth in construction output anticipated by the CPA team is a sharp revision down from the 4.3% growth forecast just three months ago. Demand remains strong across the industry in Q2, and the current project pipeline suggests that this will support activity levels until at least 2022 Q3. The downward revision to the growth forecast stems from concern around a host of price pressures arising from both local and global issues. Prior to the conflict in Ukraine, UK construction was already facing labour and product availability issues and the impact of reverse charge VAT and IR35. Rising energy costs were driving near-record price increases in construction products and the continued conflict is exacerbating this issue.
In private housing repair, maintenance and improvement, the stellar performer post the initial Covid-19 lockdowns, SMEs report that demand remains high, but this is the sector arguably most exposed to current price inflation, falls in consumer confidence and pressures on household incomes. Overall, output is expected to fall by 3% in 2022 and 4% next year from current all-time highs. Private housing, the largest
construction sector, remains strong, with housebuilders reporting resilient demand. Longer term, there must be questions over consumer confidence but output in this sector is forecast to rise by 1% in both 2022 and 2023. This contrasts with the 3% per year growth forecast three months ago. The fastest growth is expected in the industrial sector, in which output is forecast to rise by 9.8% in 2022 and 9.3% in 2023, due to a strong pipeline of warehouse projects, resulting from a long-term shift towards online shopping.
Infrastructure, traditionally less affected by immediate economic conditions, remains positive. Large projects such as HS2, Thames Tideway and Hinkley Point C combined with the five-year spending plans in regulated sectors such as rail, road and power generation point to a forecasted growth of 8.8% in 2022 and 4.6% in 2023.
On the supply side, the main immediate impact of the war in Ukraine for construction products will be the knock-on from rising energy prices and commodity shortages.
Soaring energy costs will have to be passed on and lead to sharp rises in the cost of energy- intensive products. This will affect both imported products such as aluminium and steel and locally sourced products such as bricks and cement.
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2022
¡ Lincoln-based foil insulation manufacturer, SuperFOIL Insulation is set to scale up UK manufacturing with the first of four production-line improvements for 2022. Production of multifoil insulation will grow by 60% from May following the installation of custom-built unwinding stations. This will be followed by three further upgrades this year which will enable it to produce 11 times as much insulation in- house as it does at present. The investments, totalling £500,000, mean that 70% of SuperFOIL products will be made in the UK.
¡ Plumbers merchant City Plumbing, has launched a new Integrated Solutions brand. Integrated Solutions at City Plumbing is a team of experts providing repair and maintenance material supply chain solutions to the affordable housing sector. Supplying in house repairs, service maintenance providers, and contractors that work in the plumbing and heating sector, Integrated Solutions will focus on product supply, distribution, frameworks, IT, and administrative solutions. In addition to over 37,000 product lines and over 350 branches to fulfil contract requirements, customers can now receive consultancy along with a range of new digital solutions.
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