Roofing Merchant Trends: Roofing Sales

MRA Building Market Reports’ survey of specialist roofing merchants and distributors covered sales trends in 2025, sales expectations for 2026, product and market trends as well as both market and business confidence.

Taken as an extract here from the full report, the survey was conducted in March soon after the US Iran war began. Key findings from the survey are:

• 44%, a net +18%, of specialist roofing merchants had seen value sales increase in 2025 compared with 2024, with 30% seeing flat sales and 26% experiencing a decline.

• A net +24% of specialist roofing merchants expected sales to increase in 2026 year-on-year. This was significantly more than the sales expectations among general builders’ merchants.

• There were no major differences between national merchant branches compared to small roofing merchants with 1-2 branches.

• Significantly more branches in the North and the Midlands had seen sales increase than in the South in 2025, and they also have higher expectations for 2026.

• Most roofing merchants report increases in the Flat roofing category, with a net +33% seeing an increase in 2026 compared to last year. The Roofing sheets category was the poorest performing roofing type, with a net decrease of -10%.

Specialist roofing merchants were asked firstly, whether their sales were up, down or the same in 2025 compared to the year before (2024), then if they expected sales to increase in 2026 compared to last year.

Sales in 2025

A net +18% of merchants saw an increase compared to the year before. The net figure is the difference between the percentage of merchants expecting growth and those expecting a decrease, expressed as a percentage.

In total, 44% of the respondents had seen an increase in sales (by value), while 30% had

seen no change and 26% a decline, compared with 2024.

There were some big regional differences. More roofing merchants in the Midlands (net +30%) and the North (net +27%) had seen sales increase in 2025 than branches in the South (net +6%). But there were no significant differences between national merchant branches and smaller independents.

Although 9% of branches had seen sales fall by more than 10% in 2025, at the other end of the scale, 13% saw sales increase by more than 10% in the year.

Sales expectations for 2026

A net +24% of merchants expected sales to increase in 2026 compared to last year, which is very strong given that interviews took place after the Iran war had started. Almost half of roofing merchants expected sales to be the same or similar to 2025 while 38% expected sales to increase.

More merchants in the North (net +30%) and the Midlands (net +41%) expected sales to increase in 2026 compared with branches in the South (net +13%). Again, there were no significant differences between National or Regional chain branches and small merchants with 1-2 branches.

Sales trends of different roofing types varied by merchant profile, the stock they carry, regions and type of work going ahead locally. However, almost half the merchants are seeing growth in flat roofing materials.

More than 50% of respondents expected roof tiles & slates sales and the roofline categories would stay roughly the same. But there are clear trends within product categories – visit www.mra-reports.co.uk for the full report.

About the research

This survey of specialist roofing merchants is part of a full roofing report – UK Roofing Systems Market: Supply Chain Focus 2026-2030 by MRA Building Market Reports. A nationally representative sample of 100 specialist roofing merchant branches is interviewed by telephone. The sample is balanced by region, type of business, and by nationals, regionals and small independents.