INDUSTRY I N S I G H T 2015 – will it be a year of boom or bust? Jeremy Brett, director of the Consumer Protection Association (CPA), one of the industry’s longest running providers of Insurance Backed Guarantees, deposit protection and installer support, talks to GGP about the organisation’s 2015 installer barometer. With the Chancellor, George Osborne, saying in his recent Autumn Statement that the UK is back on the ‘path to prosperity’, how do installers feel about their businesses and the future of the UK? To answer this, our annual installer barometer polled over 12,000 installers, asking them a series of questions. Industry market intelligence experts, Insight Data, independently carried out the study and collated the results. Mandatory IBGs With legislation introduced to make it mandatory for installers to offer their customers Insurance Backed Guarantees (IBGs), those taking part were asked how they viewed the recent changes. Interestingly, just under half (45.31%) said they viewed them positively, compared to 35.94% who said they viewed them negatively; with 15.63% saying they had no opinion on the issue. This may surprise some, given some of the industry chatter around the subject saying that installers would be opposed to the changes. Certainly in our experience, our members were offering IBGs and deposit protection anyway so we can understand why many installers would not have viewed the change negatively. Consumer patterns Installers were then asked what factors they felt influenced property owners to buy their products. An overwhelming 70.31% said that they felt company reputation was the most important factor for closing a sale, with 57.81% saying recent customer references and over half saying that membership of an accreditation or support body helped them to win sales. Interestingly, only 29.69% said that the sales presentation itself was paramount to clinching the deal. Without business survival reliant on generating leads, respondents were also asked what their primary way of attracting new customers was. Way over half (71.88%) said that word of mouth was how they attracted new customers. Only 6.25% said that appearing in their local newspaper generated leads. Business Moving onto business performance, installers were asked how their company performed in 2014, compared to 2013. The results were positive, with 59.38% saying profit margins had increased, 56.25% saying that cash-flow position had improved and just over half (51.56%) saying that the number of leads coming into the business had gone up. Looking ahead to 2015, installers appear optimistic about the future. 71.88% expect sales to increase and 68.75% said they expected profits to increase. But only 32.81% said they expected to employ more people, “Looking ahead to 2015, installers appear optimistic about the future.” despite the projected good performance of the economy – suggesting a desire to keep overheads down. Economy Regarding expectations for the industry as a whole over half (53.13%) believe that there will be sustained growth across the industry and that consumer spending on home improvement will increase (54.69%). And despite a slowdown in construction, 54.69% predict that there will be an increase in the number of infrastructure projects being built. And despite an upcoming General Election – which has the potential to frighten the markets – 54.69% believe the state of the UK economy will improve, with 37.50% saying they expected inflation to go up. Installers were also optimistic about unemployment levels staying low – with 51.56% saying they expected the number of jobs created to go up. All in all the results of the barometer were positive, suggesting a sturdy and sustained optimism from installers when it comes to the future of the industry and the country. 40 www.ggp.com January 2015
GGP January 2015
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