INDUSTRY COMMENT: BHETA
THIS YEAR IS LOOKING UP: BHETA OFFERS DATA INSIGHT
A viewpoint from Will Jones, Chief Operating Officer of BHETA - the leading UK Trade Association for manufacturers, importers, and distributors who operate in the home improvement and garden sectors.
aimed at suppliers and retailers and pulling together multiple sources of data on recent trading in the home improvement, DIY, housewares, garden, and small domestic appliances sectors. Including category size, growth rates and consumer behaviour, and the macro-economic view, BHETA data shows that while there are plenty of challenges and headwinds, there are many positives, with most pundits expecting the economic situation to improve in 2024. In the latest report, the leading trade association for DIY and garden has invested in information on an even wider range of categories, making the sector – especially garden – even clearer for suppliers and retailers.
B Economic outlook
Whilst 2024 will still present economic challenges, there is increasingly good news on inflation, with UK gas and electricity wholesale prices back into ‘normal’ pre-Ukraine invasion territory. New mortgage rates are reducing in anticipation of interest rate cuts later in the year. House prices are back on the up and national insurance cuts are to come. All of this means consumers should have more disposable income as the year progresses.
Predicting 2024 DIY and gardening sales are expected to grow by 1.7% in 2024 as the housing market begins to recover and consumer spending power improves. This recovery follows a challenging 2023 in which the DIY & gardening market fell by 0.8%, pulled down by poor weather conditions impacting the garden market and reduced activity in the housing market as inflation and high
22 DIY WEEK MARCH 2024 HETA has just
published its latest quarterly economic report, a comprehensive market insight
interest rates impacted consumers’ finances. The sector suffered in Q4 2023 as sales fell 3.8%, with a drop in demand for big-ticket items and the milder winter dampening spend on insulation goods, which provided a boost for the sector last year. Following expected growth of 4.5% to £388.2bn in 2023, retail spending growth is forecast to slow to 2.9% in 2024. We expect inflation to drop sharply from 9.5% to 2.8% as the cost pressures that have pushed it higher, particularly energy price hikes, fall out of the calculation. Significantly, 2024 is set to be the first year since 2021 to record positive retail sales volume growth, albeit minor at 0.1%, reflecting shoppers slightly greater capacity to spend. Real earnings growth, combined with the cut to National Insurance will create a more supportive context for discretionary spending. That said, this benefit will not be felt by all households. For those needing to re-mortgage and facing much higher monthly payments, household spending will be squeezed. The online channel will see
improved growth of 3.0% in 2024 following a rise of just 0.6% in 2023 and a decline of 9.9% in 2022, after the heights of the pandemic when online penetration reached over 27%. Online penetration will rise very marginally in 2024 to 22.8% and slowly rise out to 2028 with more rapid growth coming from the online food market as retailers’ proposition improvements entice shoppers.
New garden market data added to BHETA reporting For 2024, BHETA has expanded the depth of its gardening category data for members and retailers and can provide quarterly updates for nine categories within Gardening and Outdoor Living. Just as a ‘for example’ the report shows in detail how the market for Garden Furniture struggled, with sales down by -4.8% year on year.
Of course, this is only a snapshot of the
full BHETA report, and to see the 2024 category specific predictions, I urge all suppliers and retailers in the category to access the whole document amounting to around fifty pages of crucial information for these tricky but opportunity- filled times. BHETA works extensively with Globaldata, the leading supplier of market data as well as its own in-house research, Google, ONS and other sources.
Even on its own,
GlobalData uses primary research to make estimates for private companies and independents and
cross-references the estimates with secondary sources, to generate a complete view of the market. So, the BHETA Quarterly Market Report really is gospel for suppliers and retailers.
To obtain a copy and for more information about BHETA, BHETA events and BHETA services, contact the BHETA Member Services team on 0121 237 1130 or visit the BHETA website
www.bheta.co.uk or DIY and garden sector manager, Lee Martin on 07805 418875.
www.diyweek.net
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