According to the latest figures, the UK Plumbers’ Merchants market reached £4.2billion last year, showing a slight growth on 2016 results.

AMA Research also showed that the sector is dominated by four major national retailers, that account for 65-70% of market share.  The main competitors of the specialist providers are home improvement retailers, and increasingly manufacturers are also selling direct to the public.

Some of the nationalists are responding to challenging plumbing and heating market by streamlining their operations and embracing ecommerce; forecasts for 2019 remain positive.