Growing enthusiasm

Home improvement recorded €10.2 bn retail value sales in France in 2015. This figure includes consumer sales only and the categories bathroom and sanitaryware, decorating sundries, floor covering, hand tools, hardware, home paint, kitchen sinks, power tools, wall covering and others. The growing enthusiasm for DIY, recycling and upcycling resulted in a 14 per cent growth in the market between 2005 and 2015. The boom in home improvement and decoration shows, such as M6Déco, widely spread over French TV channels, has contributed to the overall consumer frenzy in terms of performing heavy work and other craft-based activities by themselves. Houses remained the predominant type of dwelling (58 per cent of households) in 2015, and the majority of French households consider home improvement a necessity in order to maintain their property value.However, France was one of the markets most impacted by the economic crisis, with a devalued euro weakening the entire economy up to 2015, when the economy finally recorded growth for the first time since the downturn. French households' disposable income recorded poor growth of 0.3 per cent between 2010 and 2015, which led consumers to cut their overall spending due to fears about the future. Consequently, home improvement retail value sales grew by only 1.6 per cent and expenditure per household declined by 4 per cent between 2010 and 2015.The combined share of private label formed the biggest competitive block in 2015, recording €4.4 bn in retail value sales and accounting for 43 per cent of the total home improvement market. Leroy Merlin (Groupe Adéo) and Castorama (Kingfisher Group) remained the leading retailers for private label home improvement products, each accounting for around 5 per cent of overall value. These two players have successfully demonstrated their ability to rethink their product offering during the crisis and adapt to new DIY trends along the way, which likely explains why private label grew twice as fast as home improvement overall between 2010 and 2015.Akzo Nobel Decorative Paints France strengthened its leading position among stand-alone brands in home improvement, generating €321 million in sales in France in 2015, representing 1 per cent growth over 2014. The company recorded a 23 per cent market share in home paints in 2015, which is explained by strong networking efforts and additional services provided to distributors via its new selling concepts Maître en Couleur and Sikkens…