Wolf, a supplier of kitchen cabinets in the U.S. and provider of building products in 26 states, reported the findings of the Wolf Key Buyer Index (KBI) for February 2014.
The February 2014 KBI score of 70.29 reflects a significant jump from January 2014’s KBI of 64.73. Wolf believes that buyers are bullish about future business opportunities, despite a long winter that produced unusually cold temperatures in the Northeast and crippling snow in the South.
Wolf developed KBI, a proprietary metric that offers a monthly snapshot of independent dealers’ sentiments, to provide a concrete measure of how building materials buyers see the near-term future of their industry. WOLF gathers data for the KBI from a monthly survey of key buyers at independent building materials dealers across 26 states. A Wolf KBI score of 50 reflects a neutral outlook; a score above 50 reflects a positive outlook; and a score below 50 reflects a negative outlook.
In the Middle Atlantic region, Building Products and Kitchen & Bath buyers are anticipating a respectable increase in business for the coming month, as shown in the overall score of 67.14 despite the continued weather challenges of February. This is also evidenced by orders placed but postponed due to weather related circumstances. The KBI score for Building Products increased from 62.20 last month to 68.00 in February, and the Kitchen & Bath products score increased from 63.33 to 66.66 during that same period.
In the Northeastern region, the combined Building Products and Kitchen & Bath score of 80.00 confirms that there is plenty of work to begin as the weather begins to improve. On the Building Products side of the business, there are projects being quoted and new single family homes to be started. On the Kitchen & Bath side, multifamily activity is beginning to increase, with buyers returning a strong score of 81.03.
The overall KBI score of 70.29 provides some confirmation that the economic recovery process continues with growing bright spots in the overall health of the construction market in 2014. PR