FLOORING FORUM READER SURVEY
Things can only get better - hopefully! Retailers report slow sales in 2023, but hope for a happier new year Flooring retailers reported some glad tidings in the run up to Christmas but 2023 overall has performed poorly, according to The Stocklists annual end-of-year survey. 2024 will be better, they reckon! Canvassing retailers in the first week of December, 61% of our readers said Q4 trading was OK with nearly 10% saying it was better than average. Only 29% confirmed anecdotal reports of sluggish trading in the all-important pre-Christmas trading period. But reviewing the year as a whole, retailers were less encouraging. After a poor summer and early Autumn, 56% said sales were down compared to last year – 19% saying their figures were down by more than 10% and 9% saying sales had plunged more than a fifth.
“We need a reduction in energy costs and lower interest rates to get the housing market moving.”
Looking across all three years since the start of the pandemic however, a small majority of readers (56%) said their business was up overall. And the flooring industry is relatively optimistic about 2024 with 41% expected an improvement, 37% predicting a similar performance to this year and only 23% expecting things to get worse. Most respondents were not expecting much of a recovery any time soon but predicting that stronger sales would come through in the second half of 2024.
“Business rates are what hurts the most. What do we get for them?”
Analysing what has been going on within the trade in 2023 in a little more detail, the vast majority (77%) of retailers say they increased prices during the year, but not by much – of those only 23% had increase prices by more than 10%.
“We need more effort from suppliers to help the smaller shops.”
And two-thirds said margins had not improved with 96% saying customers had become more price sensitive. However, 76% of our readers said sales of higher value, quality flooring had held up well. When we asked retailers what had been their biggest challenges of 2023, finding fitters – usually a major issue – had dropped down the list to just 11%, maybe a sign of reduced volumes. 36% citing low customer demand and the top problem was rising supplier prices, singled out by 42% of respondents. 30
“The flooring industry is relatively optimistic about 2024 with 41% expecting an improvement, 37% predicting a similar performance to this year and only 23% expecting things to get worse.”
61% said Q4 trading was OK 56% saw sales down from 2022 41% expect better sales in 2024 77% have increased prices 96% see more price sensitivity 74% said suppliers had done well The Stocklists polled 2,720 retailers throughout the UK during December 2023. Replies and comments are recorded anonymously. Many thanks to all those who took part.
But suppliers actually got a ringing endorsement from retailers with 56% saying their price increases were reasonable (37% felt there had been some profiteering!) and when we asked if suppliers had risen to the challenges of 2023 in terms of reasonable levels of service/delivery, 74% agreed that they had.
“Labour will doubtless win the next election and the value of sterling will immediately drop, pushing prices up.”
Finally we asked for opinions on what would help boost business in 2024 and one Southern retailer just said one word “stability”! Business rates were mentioned by many readers as a continuing challenge but it was interest rates that were singled out by most as the big issue. “We need a reduction in energy costs and lower interest rates to get the housing market moving. Too much of customers money is being taken up by extra costs in their household bills,” said one reader. So the retailers’ report for 2023 is generally that “things can only get better” – and probably will. Festive cheers for that! THE STOCKLISTS January 2024