The UK Woodworking Machinery Market

The various commercially available studies of the UK woodworking machinery market do not define the industrial woodworking sector accurately. The Association has therefore carried out its own focussed market study.

Size
 
The market is worth some 276 million per year from which 180 million pa relates to pure machinery sales. Tooling accounts for a further 29 million pa and Wood related dust extraction is some 21 million pa.

There are around 80 companies actively supplying machinery, the majority of which originates from Germany, Italy and the Far East.

Overall there are 142 companies in the wood equipment sector

Most of the UK employment in the industry (total 1,787 full time equivalent jobs) is in dealership services including machine service.

Profitability

Sector profits are 8.8 million pa which is 3.2% of sales. Profits purely on machinery sales are 2.3% of sales.

The most profitable area is Software which enjoys 25% of sales whilst machine re-building is the least profitable segment, achieving little more than breakeven.

The sector has comparatively low barriers to entry of new suppliers and this is reflected in the high return on capital employed of 13%. The whole market has a net worth (assets) of 67.8 million.

Degree of Consolidation

The top 10 suppliers by sales volume have 43% of the market between them, suggesting a consolidating market. It is expected that further consolidation will take place over the next couple of years.

Association influence

WMSA members represent 70% of the market by turnover making the association the significant grouping in the sector.

However WMSA members earn 90% of the profits in the sector, indicating that the more successful companies in the market are WMSA members.

8 out of the top 10 suppliers are WMSA members.

Developing the report.

The association will seek to develop this report by breaking down the above picture into machine groups and ultimately machine types.