The CFJ/CFA Awards 2022 will take place at Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire on Friday 9 September. After an impressive number of entries for 2022, the finalists were judged by our independent judging panel: John Butler, senior flooring contractor; Fiona Bowman, senior facilities management consultant; Richard Renouf, independent flooring expert; and new addition Graeme Dewar, chartered surveyor at GD Surveyors. The guest host will be comedian Jo Caulfield.
A decade ago, the contract floorcoverings market was worth 45% of the total floorcoverings market. It’s now valued at 49% with the larger 51% being attributed to the domestic sector. Imports for this market continue to gain market share, being driven by exchange rates and the performance of the pound. About 70% of these imports are from the EU, most notably The Netherlands and Belgium.
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the number of self-employed workers has fallen by nearly a fifth since the end of 2019, when there were five million self-employed workers in the UK. Experts attribute the fall to nearly 800,000 people entering full employment, studying, training, or withdrawing from the workforce.
Vacancies in the construction sector were at 44,000 in the second quarter of this year, says the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Many have blamed this on European workers returning home because of Brexit, but this ignores the fact that labour shortages are becoming a chronic problem throughout the EU after Covid-19.
The Insolvency Service has reported that construction insolvencies in England and Wales are as high as 350 a month – up from 269 a month before the pandemic. Voluntary liquidations in all sectors are now at their highest quarterly level in 62 years. Meanwhile, output in construction was down in July for the first time in 18 months.
As the Bank of England tried to cool the inflationary spiral – which at the time of writing was pushing above 13% – it raised its main interest rate from 1.25 to 1.75%, the largest single increase since 1995. The bank warned of a protracted recession owing to Russia’s restrictions of gas supplies to Europe, signalling the worst squeeze on living standards for than 60 years.
Likewise Group, a UK floorcoverings distributor, has revealed its sales revenue in the six months to 30 June 2022 will be £57.8m, an increase of 106.1% over the corresponding period last year. Organic sales revenue growth of businesses owned in the same period in 2021 is 27.3%. The company says this has been achieved through the clearly defined strategy of investment in established sales representatives combined with multiple sales and marketing initiatives.
Fitter Paddy McNicholas held a well-attended open day for his new training centre, MN Floor Training in Wolverhampton, on Friday 15 July. The event took place between 10am-4pm with proceeds going to charity. Exhibitors included F Ball and Co, Mapei, Hanson Plywood, Brampton Chase, Stairrods, Green-Flor, and Gekko Adhesives, among others. UK Flooring TV run by the NICF’s Brian King was in attendance along with Dan Jones, a champion fitter of the year.
Research by Unlatch, new homes progression and aftercare platform for developers and housebuilders, reveals the annual price growth of UK newbuild homes has outperformed existing homes by almost 20% in the past year. The average price of an existing home is £272,851, an increase of 8% in the past year. The average price of a newbuild is up from £330,662 to £422,414 – annual growth of 28%. So newbuilds have outperformed existing homes by 19%.