The Builders Merchant Building Index – BMBI

BMBI experts are the voice of their markets
Client BMBI
Location UK

BMBI – www.bmbi.co.uk

Why

  • An MRA initiative and partnership between MRA, BMF & GfK
  • Reaches immediate market, construction, economists national media & ONS, Banks and government
  • Leading panel of Industry Experts who speak exclusively for their markets on trends and issues in quarterly comments
  • Brand builder. Lots exposure in PR, columns in trade media, social media, video & digital
  • Gives you authority and a high profile platform

Measuring the level of RMI work in the economy is hugely important to everyone including Government. Yet until now there has not been any decent measure of RMI, or even an approximation of it. David Smith, the economist who writes for the Sunday Times, even created a ‘Skip Index’ – an informal measure of RMI activity by builders and tradesmen based on the number of skips in his road. The Builders Merchants Panel provides an accurate alternative on a national scale.

The BMBI has become the only reliable measure of RMI building activity in the UK. Filling an important gap, it can be widely used in construction, and by economists, Government, national media commentators and influencers outside the industry.

It’s an opportunity for the industry and the BMF to build awareness and understanding of our markets and leading brands. That’s why we created the BMBI.

The Industry

80-85% of the built environment you see is supplied by Britain’s builders’ merchants. Merchants and their suppliers are crucial to construction, which each year contributes more than £40 billion to the UK economy.

The Builders Merchant industry is made up of builders’ merchants, plumbers’ merchants, timber merchants and other specialist merchants, who supply products and materials to construction companies, tradespeople and the general public. They make up and deliver orders and advise customers on which products to use for a particular job/s. The merchants are, in turn, supplied by merchant suppliers who manufacture/refine the raw materials/products that are sold by the merchants.

Merchants sell building, plumbing and do-it-yourself products to the trade and the general public. Products include timber, bricks, decorating materials, plumbing supplies, tools and gardening equipment.

BMBI was a finalist in 2017 and 2018 at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Marketing Excellence awards – for ‘Best Use of Data & Insight’ and ‘Best Product Launch’ and winner of Construction Marketing Awards 2017 ‘Best Product Launch’.