Inflation pushes industry sales values higher

Having been kindly invited to attend all the dealer group conferences this June, it was clear when talking to smaller independent dealers how difficult they have been finding it to pass product price increases on to their customers. However, it appears from the GfK Panel Data that the commercial/contract sector have been able to do just that and despite a probable linked fall in volumes as a result, May saw price increases of around 6% compared to last May. That has provided a 2.9% increase in overall sales values, with a fall in volume at the piece level of 2.3%.

Retail continues the trend of increasing prices with a 2.4% increase at the piece level and piece volumes down by 1.9%.

To download the full GfK report on May and all the previous months, please click here.