diff --git a/news/7768.feature b/news/7768.feature
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..82e600b3dc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/7768.feature
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Indicate when wheel building is skipped, due to lack of the ``wheel`` package.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/wheel_builder.py b/src/pip/_internal/wheel_builder.py
index 7c7820d4f26..9aa82b746d5 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/wheel_builder.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/wheel_builder.py
@@ -71,6 +71,10 @@ def _should_build(
 
     if not req.use_pep517 and not is_wheel_installed():
         # we don't build legacy requirements if wheel is not installed
+        logger.info(
+            "Could not build wheels for %s,"
+            "since package 'wheel' is not installed.", req.name,
+        )
         return False
 
     if req.editable or not req.source_dir: