The brassware & taps market is expected to decline 17% in 2020, this is due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Stockpiles will have at the very least started to deplete, cashflow will be running low both of which will have the potential to cause stock shortages. Looking to 2021 we estimate a steady growth of 2-4% per annum, where there has been a focus on hygiene and handwashing measures resulting from the pandemic, showing just one avenue of where this moderate upturn can come from.  

Michelle Turner, editor of the Bathroom and Kitchen Brassware and Taps Market Report comments, “Resilience has been shown by many major key suppliers in the Brassware and Taps market as the means of supply has felt less distribution than other areas of the supply chain within this market, mainly thanks to pure adaptability, surplus Brexit stocks and the ever important ‘essential’ products and services provided. Although forecasts for the short term are bleak, the return of housebuilding activity and all-important consumer confidence cannot come quick enough to support the modest growth expected to return at the end of the forecast period.�     

This is now considered a mature market where the top 5 suppliers represent around half of the market, the remainder is highly fragmented, which includes direct sales, sales via furniture multiples as well as retails department stores.

The value of UK imports of mixer taps has increased by 27% in the period 2016-19, whereas imports of other taps have decreased by 10%. At the end of the Brexit transition period in January 2021, a free trade deal with the EU and other trading nations will be a desired outcome, in order to stop tariffs and reduce other trade barriers coming into force.

The domestic replacement sector accounts for the largest share of the brassware and taps market at just over half in 2019. With the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 homeowners undertook many home improvements to occupy themselves which increased the sales of DIY products especially for those which offered click and collect.

Overall, around 25% of all UK households have two or more bathrooms whereas 45% have two or more WCs. This varies throughout the different types of dwellings from ‘owner occupied’, ‘private rented’, ‘local authority’ and ‘housing association’.

For more information or to purchase this report please visit www.amaresearch.co.uk or call us on 01242 235724.