This year has seen the most severe weather conditions for over 30 years. In January 2010, the UK suffered the worst bout of snow in decades which had a decremental affect on the sales of conservatories.
Year on year, sales of conservatories in January have always been high but this year has been dramatically different due to the severe weather. Our conservatory sales literally halved in January in comparison to previous years and this continued well in to February. Consequently, turnover was also affected and we didn’t make up for the lost sales until the end of October, in fact by then we were 5% up on sales compared to the same period last year.
Then in November, we saw further heavy snow falls, even worse than that of January and again affecting the sales of conservatories. This has resulted in a further loss of sales and has taken us back to around the same sales figures as last year. Well it could have been a lot worse as last year was a good one and we’ve done very well to recover from the disruptions of 2010.
On top of all that, we’ve had further disruptions such as The World Cup and a General Election together with continued recession conditions and falling house prices. All in all, it has been an extremely difficult year for businesses in all industries, not just for conservatories.
In some ways, conservatories have benefited from the recession as consumers decide to extend their homes rather than move and opt for a conservatory rather than a traditional brick built extension with a view to saving money.
Next January sees the VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% which is likely to have some affect on sales but I think this will be minimal as it adds around £250 to the cost of average conservatories.
Posted by David Bingham 
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