Sales up, confidence down

The flooring industry waits with some trepidation to see how Q4 plays out as the latest retail figures put sales significantly up for September while consumer confidence in the sector is plummeting.

The latest report from the Office for National Statistics has encouraging news for the flooring sector with sales up 22% for September, rising on a month-on-month to £271.8m from £221.6m in August. Compared to the same time last year, sales are up 6.9%.

Part of the uplift is accounted for by inflation which is still persistently high in flooring at 8.4% but volumes are also up and the figures are in line with the furniture sector as a whole which was up 26% in September. The overall retail figures for September which saw non-food sales down 1.9% over August.

But he positive news runs counter to the latest report from GfK's highly regarded Major Purchase Index which asks how confident consumers are to buy appliances, furniture and cars.

After a summer of improvements in the index, this month's report sees the index drop 14 points to minus 34 - the largest drop for over three years in a single month.

Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK commented: "The fierce headwinds of meeting the accelerating costs of heating our homes, filling our petrol tanks, coping with surging mortgage and rental rates, a slowing jobs market and now the uncertainties posed by conflict in the Middle East, are all contributing to this growing unease,"

"The volatility we are seeing in consumer confidence is a sure sign of a depressed economic mood, and there’s no immediate prospect of any improvement," he said.

GfK's general consumer confidence index covering all sectors dropped nine points to -30 in October.