Business are beginning to report that after good start to the year, with a milder winter than last year, April鈥檚 downpours hampered trading at the consumer end of the market.
The country鈥檚 leading builders鈥� merchant group, Travis Perkins, yesterday said: 鈥淎fter a good first quarter, record levels of rainfall contributed to a weaker performance in April and the early part of May where activity levels at sites continue to be impacted by the very wet weather.鈥�
Today it is the turn of brick and block producer Marshalls to reveal the impact of the rain.
In an interim management statement it said: 鈥淎fter a satisfactory first quarter, sales did not show their usual post Easter uplift.聽 Working conditions in April were disappointing, hampering sales and obscuring underlying market trends.鈥�
According to the Met Office, there was 138mm of rain in April, compared with just 14mm in April 2011 and 27mm in 2010.
鈥淭he rainfall in April has been an important factor in the reduction in sales of 拢5m (equivalent to 3 days' installations) in the month compared with last year,鈥� Marshall said.
Both Marshalls and Travis Perkin reported that it was consumer spending rather than trade spending that was down.
At Travis Perkins, like for like consumer spending in its stores for the nine weeks to 30 April was down 5.6%.
Marshalls' revenue for the four months ended 30 April 2012 of 拢106m was 3% lower than last year鈥檚 拢109m but still up on 2010鈥檚 拢98m. Sales to the public sector and commercial end market, representing 64% of total revenue, were flat.聽 Sales to the domestic end market were down 8%.聽
However, on the positive side, this has generated pent up demand. Marshalls鈥� survey of domestic installers at the end of April 2012 revealed a higher backlog of demand with order books of 7.5 weeks (2011: 7.1 weeks) up from 6.3 weeks at the end of February 2012 (2011: 7.2 weeks).聽
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