Page 23 - HW Sept 2021

state of the nation survey 2021
100 90 80 70
facing the 60
building
products
and services
industry in
the next 6-12
months?
What are the biggest challenges
50 40 30 20 10
0
Compared to last year, the number of DIY retailers and merchants that say “It’s going to improve” has almost halved, with almost 40% stating either “It’s going to soften” or “It’s going to deteriorate”.
Key concerns, factors and comments around this question included interest rates, increased costs and increasing lead times, along with some optimistic moderating comments that this would all come good in the next few months.
“Massive pent-up demand” once fulfilled bringing about a drop in demand was a common concern, along with the obvious “head winds” of ongoing delays due to shipping congestion
and cost increases, shortages and more expensive materials dampening trade demand.
3. Whatarethebiggestchallengesfacingthebuilding product and services industry in the next 6-12 months? Last year, the overall response to this key question compared to the others revealed far fewer differences between suppliers and retailers & merchants.
“Supply chain & fulfilment” was by far the biggest but not the only challenge facing the hardware channel, said our respondents.
In this respect, the challenges that involved a human element (“Recruitment”, “Labour costs”, “Staff wellbeing” and “Impacts of Covid-129 on consumers”) together formed an almost equal block of opinion.
This year, perhaps unsurprisingly, a massive majority – in fact all but 3% of respondents – nominated “Supply chain & fulfilment” as the key challenge facing the channel.
Equally unsurprising, given the ongoing extremely high
number of roles currently being advertised, “Recruitment” was put as this year’s second biggest challenge and a significantly increased concern while “Labour costs” and “Staff wellbeing” were also highly nominated; “Interest rates” were a challenge for a quarter of respondents
All but 5% of suppliers agree with 2021’s top challenge, but their opinion as a group diverges somewhat with half also concerned about challenges from “Global economic factors” and “Recruitment”.
Every DIY retailer and merchant put “Supply chain & fulfilment” as their biggest challenge for 2021 and beyond while “Recruitment” was also highly cited and rated as substantially more challenging than for the suppliers.
Interestingly, while not one supplier chose “Discounting” as a challenge for the next 6-12 months, 13% of the DIY retailers and merchants thought the opposite!
Whilst this snapshot of the hardware channel was taken before the latest round of lockdowns, it does serve to indicate that sentiment about prospects for the next half year plus has become quite a bit less positive since November 2020.
With some of the factors, concerns and challenges highlighted above now widely recognised as becoming increasingly acute, during the rest of this year we will be looking closely at some of the steps being taken to overcome these challenges, as well as revisiting opinions as time goes on.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this new survey, by the way – I realise your time is precious and already largely devoted to not just coping with but getting ahead of the issues facing today’s hardware channel.
MORE AT www.facebook.com/nzhardwarejournal
SEPTEMBER 2021 | NZHJ 21
Supply chain & fulfilment Recruitment
Global economic factors
Labour costs
Government regulation
Interest rates
Staff well-being Occupational health & safety
Consumer confidence Discounting