The National Retail Association has revised its sales forecast for the hardware, building and garden supplies category to 6.7 per cent, with projections suggesting soft trading conditions across the final quarter of 2015/16.
It is now expected that the category will generate total actual sales of $18.19 billion for the current financial year.
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Driven by a sustained rise in residential property sales, especially in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne, hardware has enjoyed strong sales growth between 2013/14 and 2014/15, recording an average of 8.4 per cent across this time period.
With a cooling of the property market in recent months however, sales conditions for hardware, building and garden supply businesses has softened, with a clear decline in sales growth occurring in the past six months.
Despite some sporadic improvements, conditions are expected to remain soft across the final quarter of 2015/16, with sales growth expected to fall below the long run average of 5.0 per cent for the first time since the first quarter of 2013/14.
As a result, the National Retail Association has downgraded its sales forecast by 0.2 per cent to $18.19 billion.
Despite this slight reduction in forecast sales, the anticipated total still represents growth of 6.7 per cent, compared with 2014/15, which will place hardware, building and garden supplies as one of the best performing retail categories in Australia for the current financial year.
To receive analysis on the sales performance of your sector of the Australian retail industry please contact Cameron Meiklejohn, Industry Research & Data Analyst, on (07) 3240 0156 or by email at c.meiklejohn@nra.net.au.