Very special, very international

The differences between the countries are not that big. This was one of the key assumptions expressed by the Kingfisher boss Véronique Laury the next day at the opening of the 4th Global DIY Summit in the Swedish capital Stockholm and more than 200 participants, who took part in the store tour on the eve of the actual conference, were able to check this out for real on site. Three of the five stores visited were international stores operated by non-Swedish DIY retail groups, namely Hornbach and Bauhaus from Germany and K-rauta from the Finnish Kesko Group. They even looked exactly like the stores at home - just with signage and advertising in Swedish.Although, there are of course differences. Like the Bauhaus store in Järfälla, which offers a very elaborate display of wallpapers and home textiles completely geared up to the globally admired Swedish-Nordic wdesign.It comes as little surprise that this store has a particularly large area dedicated to water sport articles, which Bauhaus offers under its brand name Nautic.The next stop on the tour, the Hornbach store, is the fourth of five stores that the German retailer meanwhile operates in Sweden and its second in the greater Stockholm area. It was opened in 2012. As all the purely DIY oriented stores on the tour - we'll come to the special case, Clas Ohlson, later - the 19 000 m² large store (of which, 7 000 m² is exclusively DIY retail space), has a drive-in; used by private as well as professional customers.The same goes for the ten-year-old K-rauta store in Täby: from the 16 000 m², 8 000 m² is made up of indoor retail space.The Finnish home improvement retailer stands out with its own concept for profis, entirely in compliance with its strategy to strengthen its B2B market. The store is located in a catchment area with high average incomes. For K-rauta this means: the customers are able to not only spend comparatively more on high quality materials, but also on commissioned craftsmen. The building and renovation market is booming in this region.Obviously the company wants a piece of this cake. The current revenue ratio of 70 per cent B2C and 30 percent B2B should shift to 50:50 in the future.Accordingly, a lot of attention is being paid to professional customers. A special customer advice centre in the style of a business lounge has been set up particularly for these clients, where they can also get, for example, drinks. Not only that, but there is also a very high quality display with generous…