More than 1 000 participants

1st Virtual DIY-Summit 2021: “Retailers and manufacturers must work together“

Sergio Giroldi emphasised how important it is for retailers and manufacturers to work together.
Sergio Giroldi emphasised how important it is for retailers and manufacturers to work together.
09.09.2021

The two-day 1st Virtual DIY-Summit started today with over 1 000 participants around the world. The international associations Edra/Ghin and Hima are holding the congress, which is transmitted online, together again. In his opening speech, Sergio Giroldi, President of Edra and head of Obi, emphasised how important it is for retailers and manufacturers to work together. "The world of retail is getting more and more complex," he said. It is therefore best to work together.
Reinhard Wolff, chairman of the executive board of Hima and owner of Wolfcraft, turned his attention in his welcome speech to the fact that the challenges of the pandemic have also brought about positive solutions and he mentioned digitalization and the increased investments by the trade in e-commerce. "We go out of this crisis much stronger," he said.
Edra general secretary John Herbert also mentioned the first figures from the Global Home Improvement Report for the year 2020. According to these, global sales by the DIY trade rose last year by 13.8 per cent to EUR 702 bn. "What a boom," Herbert said. "It was a very successful 2020."
Herbert also used the virtual event to say farewell to his colleague from the side of manufacturing of many years and co-moderator of the congress with very personal words. Ralf Rahmede, general manager of Hima, will be taking retirement at the end of October. "We are very, very sad to see you go," Herbert said.
On the first day at the Virtual DIY-Summit, speeches were also made by Tim Chuah from Euromonitor International about "The Future Home", Ken Hughes about "The Joy of CX: Why the Customer Experience is everything", Sebastian Gundel from Obi and Stefan Weigel from Wolfcraft about "Enabling Customers by Enabling Partnering" as well as Kingfisher CEO Thierry Garnier and the British member of Parliament Andrew Griffith about "Getting to Net Zero in a Changing Retail World".
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