CAB Q3 Survey: Strong Year Ahead
October 2016

CAB Chief Executive, Justin Ratcliffe looks at rising confidence in the very latest Q3, 2016 CAB State of Market Report and reflects on the recent CAB Regional Members’ event at Mercedes Benz World, Weybridge which highlighted a number of key initiatives.

The very latest Q3, CAB State of Trade Survey highlights strong signs of optimism in the year ahead with the caveat of rising unit costs. With the wider construction sector showing growth for the 14th consecutive quarter, CAB members’ expectations for the next quarter recovered considerably with 53% net balance anticipating an increase in sales over the next quarter while 80% net balance anticipated a rise in the next 12 months – the highest confidence level since Q2, 2015.

The depreciation of sterling since the EU Referendum vote has driven up the import costs of raw materials/products and unsurprisingly 100% net balance of members forecasted rising unit costs in the year ahead. Encouragingly, members forecasted increasing capital investment in all metrics (except Product Improvement) for the year ahead with Plant & Equipment (47% net balance of members) being the main focus.

CAB Regional Members’ meeting - Mercedes Benz World
Over 120 members and guests attended the 2nd CAB Regional Members meeting of 2016 at the prestigious Mercedes Benz World in Weybridge, Surrey. Professor Noble Francis, Economics Director, Construction Association gave a keynote presentation on various Industry scenarios post Brexit and CAB Technical and Marketing updates were followed by a presentation on Fenestration NVQ’s by Tony Blake of Total Support Training.

Noble provided a series of economic scenarios to 2018 but due to the fact that the whole Brexit process had not formally started, there were Upper, Lower and Central scenarios. Overall a slight growth in construction output was forecast for 2016 with a fall in 2017 (Q3 and Q4).The central scenario for Private house building was forecasted to remain relatively flat with the number of starts falling slightly from 139.8k in 2016 to 136.3k in 2018. With commercial and industrial output forecast to decline over the next 2 years, a couple of key positives were growth in infrastructure (6-10%) and strong growth in schools and universities. It was noted that as supermarkets grow their online capabilities further this would lead to less outlets and more warehouses prompting a likely fall in the retail construction sector. In making the forecasts, Noble emphasised how it was practically impossible to forecast 2019 with so much uncertainty in 2016-8 surrounding the EU Referendum result.

CAB Aluminium Pavilion - FIT Show 2017
CAB was delighted to announce that it would be hosting its first ever ‘CAB Aluminium Pavilion’ at the FIT Show 2017 (23-25 May). Over 20 CAB members were already signed up to the show and the Pavilion in Hall 8 would present a unique opportunity for even more members to take part. CAB has a great deal of experience in managing such stands and its focus would again be on providing a drop-in lounge for technical questions and networking. With aluminium looking set to increase its share of the UK domestic and home improvement market from its current 9%/10%, the Pavilion would also be an outstanding opportunity to showcase the exciting array of innovative domestic sector products and services provided by CAB’s growing membership. The CAB Team was very much looking forward to working with the FIT Show organisers to create the industry’s largest ever Aluminium Pavilion and developing some exciting promotional opportunities.

Accredited Training
This was a particularly topical subject with the launch of the Farmer report proposing that construction Clients pay up to 0.5% of the total value of a project if they were unable to demonstrate how they were able to contribute to the modernisation of the industry. The skills gap was particularly apparent across the construction sector at a time when 700,000 needed to be recruited into the sector over the next 5 years just to replace those that were leaving.

CAB already had a number of training days for members on contractual awareness issues and specialised marketing topics. It was seeking to expand this further, focusing on the essentials of installation and fabrication. Tony Blake, an Assessor and Internal Verifier from Total Support Training provided an overview of relevant Fenestration NVQ’s in the sector and their benefits. He then highlighted how units within these qualifications could be covered and assessed to provide accredited training days. Successful candidates would be eligible to have such training listed on a GQA Skills Card. Tony highlighted how he was working with CAB and GQA to establish the level of interest in the various training areas and how CAB would be hosting a ‘pilot’ day in Birmingham on 1 December 2016 to showcase for members the content available and to see how this might best be tailored for the aluminium in building sector.

Membership Update
The meeting welcomed fabricator, Openwood Facades as the latest new member to join CAB in 2016. They joined a number of leading brands as well as established regional and new businesses into the Association who have been attracted by technical and marketing support together with new training seminars. These new member companies were:

Adshead Ratcliffe & Co; AGC Glass UK; Alchemy Architectural Aluminium Systems; Alimatic Architectural Aluminium Systems ;Arkay Windows; Dyer Environmental Controls; IDF Aluminium; NorDan Aluminum; Norwich Aluminium; Openwood Facades; Ridgeway Glazing; Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands and Vulcan Aluminium.

For more details on the CAB Pavilion, training opportunities or membership please contact
justin.ratcliffe@c-a-b.org.uk or ring 01453 828851.