The attraction of the own label business was that the company produced on long term contracts and did not need to hold stock, supplying their customers at regular and determined intervals. This was in contrast to the branded sector, which suffered from both a high level of seasonality and considerable fluctuations in demand. Whereas external paints tended to be most in demand during the summer, indoor paints were usually bought in the winter. This pattern could, and was often changed by alterations in the weather patterns - a poor summer could drive demand of indoor paints up within a short period of time. The pattern of the last 2 years by month is detailed in Table 4C.