• The Grocery sector saw a large spike in sales in March up over 13% (value) and 14% (volume ) relative to February following a steady increase over the last few years. While this could be due to stockpiling and some element of ‘panic-buying’ by consumers , it indicates that demand in this sector is likely to hold up as consumers treat food and household products as necessities.
• As regards the DIY sector, whilst Furniture and Lighting experienced a fall in sales in March, the Hardware Paint and Glass and the Electrical Goods sector saw a strong volume sales growth in March.
• We have updated the earlier correlation analysis of the link between house completions and retail demand in various household goods sectors. The results confirm that house completions are strongly associated with the volume of sales of these products. We expect the growth in house completions to continue now that Phase 1 of the relaxation of the Covid 19 restrictions has commenced.
• This week we see that the KBC Consumer Sentiment showed a significant improvement in May following the Covid-19 related collapse in confidence in April.

TWM are helping both purchasers and vendors navigate their way through the current uncertainty in terms of preparing a strategy for investment sales or indeed advising on the best investment acquisition decisions. We are available at any time to assist.

Sean O’Neill

Please click HERE to view the Research note.