FORT Fencing
Agricultural & Equine Fencing
FORT Customer Update - July 2025
20 July 2025
It’s full-on Summertime. The weather has literally gone from storm to drought as we see continuous spells of sunshine. It makes for quite a tough working environment and that is bound to affect productivity, especially as the average age of builders increases as highlighted in articles here and here.
The slightly cooler months of the year are now appearing to be when workloads increase, then as days shorten and the temperatures drop the demand lowers again.
Everyone enjoyed watching the Lionesses triumph in the Euros, and the British and Irish Lions looking for a whitewash in Australia, but from the sounds of things many of our customers have been enjoying the golf course, the one-handed tan being the dead giveaway!
In other “sunny” news, at the beginning of the year we shared an appeal for support for Cleo Davies who had suffered a stroke from a blood clot in her brain and in the urgent medical care that she received it was discovered that she had APL leukaemia. The appeal raised an astonishing £29,000, meaning that Cleo could get the treatment and medicine needed to fight the cancer, as well as re-learning how to walk and talk and try and rehabilitate from paralysis. This week we were delighted to hear that Cleo was given the all clear from the cancer, with all attention now onto the stroke recovery phase of treatment. Amazing news! Cleo is getting the best chance of a great recovery thanks to the donations, many made by the FORT family, customers and wider community, and her determination to progress each day.
Here at FORT we’ve gone through a bit of a refresh cycle on our vehicles in 2025, and the new trucks are starting to get seen around and about and their livery helps them to stand out. You may have even noticed that each one is named? Well, each is a real person and over the next few months we’ll begin to reveal who these people are!
We were delighted to host Chairman of the Builders Merchant Federation (BMF) John Newcombe last week and show him what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and what our plans are. The BMF is one of the main bodies that has the concerns and issues of builders merchants at its heart, listening to what we are saying and being our voice when lobbying the government and other institutions.
Having both the BMF and H&B (one of the largest buying groups of independent merchants in the UK) in our corner means that we have a strong buying power, best of breed training of our staff and a support network of a wide range of other merchants and suppliers. You will feel the benefit of this in your engagements with us and we back ourselves to offer service, knowledge and availability, all at the right price.
General Availability & Price Update
We mitigate price increases wherever possible, but we are seeing increases come through from our suppliers on a range of materials.
The FORT purchasing team are doing a great job of ensuring that we have stock on the ground and available, but as always, please forward-plan your requirement so that you aren’t caught short. The long-standing issues around flint blocks (very long lead time) and aircrete blocks (still on allocation from suppliers) continue, but we have plenty of stock of both.
August is a time when our team need to be on top of their game, with natural slate suppliers shutting their quarries for the month, as well as Scandinavian timber sawmills stopping or massively reducing their production as their staff go on holiday and they do annual maintenance on their machinery. FORT’s team is aware and on top of these, with plenty of stock of roofing slate and timber, but just be aware and as always:
Please wherever possible price ahead of time and build contingency for price increases into tenders for the future.
Here’s our round up of data to help you track key indicators that affect all of us:
Timber
This is a chart for the US market. As you can see, rates rose, but fell back significantly during the initial tariff saga, before rising again, showing an increase of around 20% in the last year and this has been sustained. The European market remains dull but availability is tight. The talk around increased prices has now begun to turn into actual increases. Current rates are still unviable in the medium term and are bound to continue increasing. FORT are seeing increases coming through and expect that to continue, although we always try and mitigate those increases where possible.
Weather & Climate - The overall rainfall trend is still low in the early part of the month, then scorching heat in the latter part, but overall the general trend is very manageable. Let’s try and make the most of it!
Currency - The £ has stabilised against the $ (around $1.35 = £1) and this affects many items bought in $. After a solid performance against the Euro, the £ has seen recent falls (E1.15.5 = £1). The Swedish Krown (which affects timber) strengthened (Kr 12.95 = £1) and this only increases pressure on timber prices to rise.
Oil Prices - These have such an impact on costs; When first preparing this update, oil was at $64 per barrel; then Israel attacked Iran ….. it jumped to $74 ; now it’s back to $68! There’s a lot of volatility and the likely impact is for increased fuel costs.
Containers - After a brief spike upwards, prices have fallen back again. This affects goods from India (sandstone) and the Far East (plywood for example). It is an important indicator. As the US & China resolve their tariff war demand will come back and probably push up rates again.
Steel - Steel prices had levelled then looked to be falling, but have steadied. A rough balance between supply and demand seems to still be in place, with no change in the last month. Steel prices have been remarkably steady for quite some time.
Inflation/Interest Rates - This is the RPI figure and it fell to 2.7% in September, but has grown since then to around 4.0% and is currently stuck there; this is a concern. The pressure on inflation is keeping the Bank of England on its toes; the most likely way forward is slightly lower rates and we saw a 0.25% drop in early May. The economy is not firing up, so further rate falls are likely, but inflation still lurks in the shadows!
As always, please do not assume stock availability - check with the sales office!
Our reputation relies on word of mouth and testimonials from our valued customers, and as such we'd love for you to share reviews of your experiences with us on either Google, Facebook or TrustPilot if you have the time.
Thank you very much for your ongoing support of FORT!
Best regards,
Matt, Tim & Keith
The Directors