Professional Distribution Sector Faces Decline Across Most Product Categories in 2024
- brg_news_room
- 6 days ago
- 1 min read
France: The building sector in 2024 has experienced widespread declines across major product categories, including heating, plumbing, sanitation, and electricity. According to figures shared by Coédis, the downturn is attributed to a reduction in new construction projects, slower renovation activity, fewer transactions, and uncertainties around subsidies and geopolitical conditions. Heating, which contributes a third of member distributors’ turnover, declined by 10 percent. Plumbing fell by 9.34 percent, electricity by 5.4 percent, and sanitary equipment by a similar margin. Tools and personal protective equipment saw a smaller decrease of 4.51 percent. Spare parts, however, showed growth of 1.9 percent, supported by a shift towards repair over replacement.
Heating equipment sales through professional distribution generated over EUR 4.4 billion (USD 4.77 billion) in 2024. Air/air heat pumps led with EUR 774 million (USD 839 million), down 6.74 percent. Air/water heat pumps and boilers followed closely at EUR 598 million (USD 648 million) and EUR 596 million (USD 646 million) respectively. The discrepancy between distributor and manufacturer data, particularly for air/water heat pumps, is due to different reporting methods and inventory impacts. These two heat pump categories now represent nearly a third of heating-related turnover. Other segments include hot water and electric emitters (16 percent) and water heaters (12 percent). Biomass generators declined by 26 percent, while solar photovoltaic systems increased by 20.5 percent, reaching EUR 267 million (USD 289 million), though this growth may be affected by upcoming reductions in feed-in tariffs.
Source: le batiment performant
