Study Reveals Top Trade Plumbing Retailers

A new industry report has uncovered the top trade plumbing brands in the UK. 

Salience Search Marketing's annual trade plumbing sector report uncovers the industry's leaders based on their online prominence and visibility. 

The report analysed 11 crucial performance indicators for trade plumbing brands to reveal the industry's most successful names, including year-on-year visibility, search volume trends, and brand awareness. The full report is available to view here.

The Market Leaders 

The industry’s market leaders are determined by estimations for each brand’s year-on-year organic traffic score. Based on keywords from the top 100 organic search results for each brand, sourced by Ahrefs, a site’s search traffic is estimated for each keyword based on its ranking position, monthly search volume, and an estimated click-through rate. An estimation is then calculated for each keyword.

The organic traffic score indicates overall website growth and decline. While these aren’t accurate representations of traffic in Google Analytics, they are performance metrics relative to domains.

The findings crown Screwfix as the market leader in the trade plumbing industry for a second consecutive year. With an impressive organic traffic score of 8,168,507, the brand tops all other brands in the sector.

Meanwhile, other brands, such as Wickes and Toolstation, are also in the top five, with organic traffic scores of 4,116,375 and 2,777,645, respectively. These scores indicate excellent organic visibility and a well-planned strategy, which resulted in strong traffic figures.

Other brands in the top ten include Plumb World, City Plumbing and Trade Point.

The Best-Rated

A' score' was calculated to determine each brand's ranking by analysing its Trustpilot average star rating and the total number of reviews.

Toolstation has been revealed as the best-rated UK trade plumbing brand. It has an excellent review score across a healthy portion of online feedback, highlighting top-quality customer service. Toolstation has a 4.6 review score across over 540,000 reviews. 

Other top performers include Victorian Plumbing, with a review score of 4.5 across 411,582 reviews and Shower Spares, which also made the top three, recording an average review score of 4.9 with 57,239 pieces of feedback.

The trade plumbing industry is highly competitive, with seven of the top ten brands recording scores of over 4.7.

The Most Prominent

The report identifies the most prominent brands within the trade plumbing industry based on consumer familiarity with the brand through online searches or social media interactions. 

By merging branded search metrics with social media performance, the report determines which brands stand out across various channels, offering insights into their overall prominence in the market.

Screwfix leads the way in terms of brand awareness this year. Overall, the brand registers over five million monthly brand searches and boasts an owned social score of 915.

Wickes and Toolstation follow with 648 and 382 owned social scores, respectively, demonstrating their commitment to maintaining and improving brand awareness. 

Other trade plumbing brands that made the top ten include Plumb World, Bradfords and Trade Point, each recording a healthy amount of monthly brand searches.

The Biggest Online Growth 

Central to this analysis is each brand's online visibility ranking, which is determined by the organic search traffic its website attracts. This metric is vital for understanding the website's overall growth or decline.

These five trade plumbing brands have experienced the most significant growth in online visibility over the past twelve months, with Screwfix securing the top spot. 

This brand has increased its traffic score by over one-fifth (21%), from 6,724,684 in 2024 to 8,168,507 in 2025, demonstrating clear efforts to boost online visibility.

Wickes experienced the most impressive surge, increasing visibility by a whopping 108%.

The Biggest Decline in Online Visibility 

The report also uncovers the brands facing the biggest drop in online visibility. 

At the other end of the scale, Big Bathroom Shop has seen traffic fall by over a quarter (26%) over the past 12 months. For 2025, the brand’s traffic score is now 118,937.

Additionally, Best Heating (21%) and Just Radiators (36%) experienced turbulent years, while QS Supplies lost 32% of its visibility.

Brett Janes, Managing Director at Salience Search Marketing, said:

“Our latest analysis of the UK’s trade plumbing industry has provided some fascinating findings, including the best-rated brands, the market leaders and those who lost and gained visibility over the last twelve months.

“This year, it’s Screwfix leading the way, while Toolstation was highlighted as the best reviewed brand in the sector. It’ll be interesting to see how these brands perform over the next twelve months and if a new brand emerges as the leading name in the trade plumbing sector.”

The full UK Trade Plumbing Report 2025 is available to read and download here.

Source : Salience Search Marketing

Image : Sinenkiy / iStock / 1501145625

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