Words: Tom Reynolds

After the euphoria of the post-Covid boom, the bathroom sector has come crashing back to earth. That burst of demand – fuelled by lockdown savings and a nation stuck indoors fantasising about walk-in showers and freestanding tubs – felt like it should have been our moment. But supply chain chaos meant it was difficult to enjoy the upturn. Margins were battered, backlogs built up, and just as things steadied, the wave passed.

Now, we’re hungover – and the cold compress of prolonged low demand has lasted far longer than anyone hoped. Consumer confidence has taken a kicking from war, inflation, and Westminster’s revolving door. When households do feel brave enough to splash out, they’re facing a crowded field of contenders: holidays to escape the drudgery, cars to dodge unreliable public transport, and a multitude of home improvement options that provide more obvious investment value.

Bathrooms? For too many, they’ve slipped down the list.

This isn’t just tough for manufacturers; it’s tough for everyone in the supply chain. Retailers, merchants, designers, plumbers – the entire ecosystem suffers when demand dries up. Which is why, more than ever, we must resist the urge to fragment and instead double down on collective action.

That means ditching our usual turf wars: tap brand X versus brand Y, high street versus online, independent showroom versus merchant. The real battle isn’t within the sector – it’s convincing the public that investing in bathrooms is worth it at all.

Of course, vibrant competition between companies is a must. But we need to make a united case for why bathrooms matter—not just as spaces of utility but as sanctuaries of wellness, as value-adding parts of the home, and as platforms for sustainability through water-saving products and energy-efficient solutions.

That case is far stronger if we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.

And I believe we can. Because behind every bathroom is an incredible array of talent and tenacity: the designers imagining better spaces, the engineers crafting the products, the fitters making it all work, and the businesses supporting them all.

It’s time we channel that collective energy into one powerful voice.

At the BMA, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes on how to make that happen – how to bring the whole industry together in a way that reflects our shared challenges and amplifies our shared opportunities. I can’t say more just yet, but trust me, something big is coming.

So please come and join me and our President, Craig Baker, at 11:30 on Tuesday, June 24 in the Bathroom Theatre. You’ll want to hear what we have to say.

The future of our industry depends not simply on who wins market share today but on whether we can grow the market tomorrow. To do that, we need to stand together—not as fragmented voices but as one united industry.