FIA Market Conditions Review- The Fire Industry Association (FIA) has published its 5th Market Conditions Review. The report is a ‘snapshot’ taken every six months to review how the fire protection market is performing and to better understand the movements in the industry.
In the 5th edition of the FIA market conditions review Ian Moore, CEO of The Fire Industry Association, answered key questions like; is the industry growing? How the export market is affecting this and if the market has enough skills to meet the complex requirements of the industry? As well as many other topics including apprentices, the tender process and regional growth.
FIA created a survey which FIA members and non-members answered, getting 100 full replies and a few partial replies. Each question was formulated into graphs to see the clear trends that have happened throughout the last 6 months.
There has been a 60% increase in the number of enquiries received in the last 6 months, and the majority of these enquiries came from the South East and Scotland. London has shown a slowing in comparison to these regions. However, this is purely showing growth and decline in queries. It has also been found that the private sector is mainly driving this growth.
59% of people who took the survey said that they have seen growth in their organisation, again the private sector are contributing largely to this growth. The geographical locations of the orders were also very similar to the enquiries, being South East and Scotland again.
38% of FIA members and non-members said that they had recruited skilled labour in the past 6 months, whereas 4% have shed skilled labour, this is in addition to the slight increase in creating apprenticeships. Ian Moore said that by looking at these results there could be an increasing shortage in skilled labour if these trends continue.
The next question asked if they had increased the amount of training for their workforce in the last 6 months. 43% said that they had increased the training. 5% said that there was a decrease in training, and the rest remained the same. Ian Moore predicts that there will be a similar trend in the following months. There has been a large increase in enquiries to tender for work in the last few months which tend to follow large scale infrastructure growth.
Over the past 6 months there hasn’t been a change in tender value. However suppliers have continually to slightly increase their tender value and 3% have decreased within the last 6 months.
Delivery times have remained static from the last half year. 86% of companies that answered this survey said that they have been receiving their payment within 60 days or less, this is good to hear as it is good for cash flow. There has been a slight increase in overseas orders across the survey. Ian Moore stated that the FIA will be funding research to gage economic growth of individual territories and appetite for British products, this will help them better understand what will need to be done to improve the industries economy.
To finish the webinar Ian answered some questions provided by the viewers. If you would like to hear Ian’s answers please follow this link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4Okoupbv0
