Sluggish heating business

A survey carried out by the UK company AMA Research reveals that the British market for heating systems achieved volume sales of 15.6 bn euro (£ 1.1 bn) in 2002. In the long term the market researchers reckon on an annual increase of two per cent, whereby the great number of DIY projects and the four million new homes that are to be built by 2016 are rated as engines of economic growth. The largest share of the heating business goes to central heating at around 65 per cent, followed by heaters (21 per cent) and water heaters (14 per cent). The central heating business is characterised by the increasing consolidation in the DIY retail sector as well as in the builders’ merchant and plumbing trade. B&Q, Homebase and Focus Wickes number among the major suppliers in this sector in addition to Saint Gobain (Jewson), Wolseley, Travis Perkins, BSS Group and Grafton Group.