Following the report of the first slowdown of sales growth recorded by the Skynamo Industry Thermometer in August 2021, the results for September have indicated very little movement month-on-month. 

The Skynamo Industry Thermometer is a free-to-access resource that benchmarks industry sales activity and sector health on a monthly basis. It reports average order values and volumes from approximately 1000 South African manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors across 26 industries using the Skynamo field sales app.

Zane van Rooyen, Product Marketing Manager at Skynamo says that the company’s Industry Thermometer recorded the first slowdown in August 2021 following encouraging signs of sales growth heading towards pre-pandemic figures since January 2021. “The results for September are almost a carbon copy of those recorded in August with minimal movement, positive or negative, across all our tracked industries,” he says. 

With this in mind, van Rooyen points out that it’s hard to ascertain what this plateau means in terms of the momentum of steady growth witnessed since the beginning of the year. “It could mean that local businesses have reached a peak in volumes or that the pressure on global supply chains is placing significant risk on companies. It could also simply be a reflection of the calm before the festive season storm.”

On a positive note, he highlights that the data is clearly showing that the Building & Hardware as well as the Food & Beverage industries are still vastly leading the race when it comes to order values and volumes with order revenue. “These are up by 100% and 400% respectively year-on-year.”

“As the world slowly opens up, with measurements set in place for businesses to operate and people to live alongside the virus, the results of the fourth quarter of 2021 will be a tell-tale sign of what to expect in 2022,” concludes van Rooyen.