FEATURE
INNOVATIVE, SUSTAINABLE FLOORING SOLUTIONS FIT FOR A BETTER NORMAL
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e Brits spend around £30bn on household goods and improvements every year. It’s undoubtedly already a huge industry. But this year, under pandemic-induced lockdown with a large portion of us working from home or furloughed, it looks set to grow further. Many of us have taken this time to improve, makeover and/or renovate our homes. So much so that online sales of building materials in the first half of March 2020 saw demand at record levels, with up to 48% year-on-year growth. Time spent doing DIY increased by a massive 147%.
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This shows no sign of abating, especially in light of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday. In the weeks following, Rightmove and Housing Today reported a 15 per cent increase in house sales; buyer enquiries were 75% higher in July than a year ago, and housebuilders’ shares soared. Homeowners on the move will be looking to makeover their current homes to help with the sale. Others will already have an eye on making changes to their new home. We caught up with IOBAC Ltd.’s CEO, Paul Woolvine, to discuss why now is as good a time as any to re-evaluate the flooring solutions we choose.
BuildingProducts.co.uk • September/October 2020
Now is the time for change “The UK government has already set its stall out to ‘build, build, build’ its way to recovery, which points to what is likely to be a huge increase in demand for building materials, including flooring solutions. It feels like a transformative time for the built environment; an opportunity to do things differently and better than before. And that’s what we’re all about at IOBAC. “Why not make the flooring solution you choose – whether you’re a housebuilder, homeowner, or flooring contractor – an inherently more flexible and sustainable one?”