Page 36 - HW February 2020
P. 36

painting & decorating
                                                    Smaller homes –
LESS TO PAINT?
What’s happening in and around the painting & decorating category this early in the new decade? Steve Bohling reports.
CALLING AROUND THE players in painting & decorating in January reveals the DIY category as being as crowded, tight and competitive as ever.
And, judging by how hard it’s been to get people on the phone or answer emails, it’s been a busy peak DIY season and suppliers and their customers have been fully occupied replenishing and stocking the shelves!
It’s clear that the two big DIY retailers are now year-round businesses, PlaceMakers too, pretty much, while trade facing operations including CARTERS and many ITMs for example shut their doors over Christmas and the New Year for relatively extended periods unless fulfilling commitments for customers.
Sika’s Tony Smith for one confirms that his retail customers now “expect service 52 weeks of the year” and that this places demands on his Distribution team to meet expectations.
“No doubt it’s busy out there,” he adds, looking at his sales for the month and growth which clearly reflects the effort Sika’s been putting into replenishing its customers’ shelves.
Given the ongoing growth in the proportion of multi-unit dwellings – apartments, townhouses, flats & units grew to 34% of total residential consents in November 2019 from 30% of
the total in November 2018 – I’m keen to find out whether the change in the sort of new dwellings being consented and built is having any effect on the painting & decorating category.
If you take 20 apartments or townhouses versus 20 standalone houses, logically there would be fewer windows, less floor area, roofing, less materials per dwelling?
Having said this, an intensive 50-60-apartment development
could be far better for sales of products and materials...
What’s Tony Smith’s take on this?
Too early to read, perhaps, but, closely related to the above, he
will confirm that Sika’s now complete, tested and appraised suite of passive fire protection products, “will be big” for the brand in 2020 and will feature large around Sika’s various trade shows and conferences planned for the year.
We’ll be looking more closely at the effect of multi-unit dwellings as the new year develops.
  34 NZHJ | FEBRUARY 2020
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