FIS Market Data
FIS Market Data
The finishes and interiors sector, with a turnover of around £10bn, represents around 10% of the UK construction sector. The workforce is around 280,000 people – this is a vital part of the UK construction sector and economy.
FIS has teamed up with the economics team at the Construction Products Association to start generating some key trend data to help improve understanding and support decisions in the sector.
As well as useful data for the sector, this is also critical data about the sector and will support our representation work. It often seems to surprise people to find out that the finishes and interiors sector makes up around £10 billion of construction.
As well as providing data to us, our data will be used to support the wider economic forecasting of the CPA, which again helps to inform the work of the Construction Leadership Council and ultimately Government policy.
Latest information
FIS State of Trade Survey Q1 2024 – Prices are rising due to raw materials and wages, despite easing hyperinflation. Insolvencies in the UK construction sector have increased, remaining a concern with challenging market conditions and high capital costs. In the year to November 2023, 4,370 construction firms went out of business, a 7.0% increase from the previous year and 37.9% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Insolvencies have been consistently higher than pre-pandemic for 21 months, reaching levels seen during the financial crisis.
FIS State of Trade Survey Q2 2023 – Workloads reported by members in the FIS Q2 State of Trade Survey have continued to trend positively with a higher balance (18% up from 5% in Q1) reporting Growth. The balance (-7%) of respondants did, however, report a decline in sales in Q2 2023 with those reporting a growth in sales dropping from 75% to 43% quarter on quarter. This is the first time the net balance has been negative since Q3 2020.
FIS State of Trade Survey Q1 2023 – Uncertainty surrounded the start of 2023 in the finishes and interiors sector with concerns (particularly in the housing sector) resulting in 32% of respondents seeing a reduction in workloads. Whilst there remain underlying concerns related to ongoing inflation and a rising cost of capital impacting viability and delaying starts, 37% did experience increases and confidence has built through the quarter.
FIS State of Trade Survey Q4 2022 – optimism in terms of sales in the face of more subdued forecasts for workloads. Inflation remains a key concern and strategic risk for the sector.
FIS State of Trade Q3 2022 – results show that largely in line with other industry surveys, there was continued growth in sales and workloads, but forward-looking expectations moderated – lower balances for contractors and falls in sales anticipated by manufacturers/suppliers.
FIS State of Trade Q2 2022 –The market has remained bouyant in Q2 2022 with 54% of respondents reporting growth – this is a similar number to reporting same in Q1 2022, but with the vast majority now seeing sales growth in excess of 5%. This is positive, but there has also been an upturn in the number of companies reporting declines of over 5%, up from 15 to 21%, underpinning that the market remains volitile.
FIS State of Trade Q1 2022 – Overall results are optimistic with the majority of members reporting increases in workload and this continuing into 2022. The concern remains that costs continue to spiral and are putting intense pressure on the sector.