In the far north

It is the northernmost country in Europe, because it has got the northernmost point on European mainland (which, by the way, is not the North Cape, but Cape Nordkinn to the east of the North Cape on the Nordkinn Peninsula). However, where the distribution of DIY stores is concerned, Norway isn't any different from the rest of Europe: there is still room for DIY stores in the conurbation areas - at least statistically. Because by far the highest number of inhabitants per store in Norway is achieved by the capital of Oslo. Here, there are 10 000 inhabitants to one store. That is four times as many as in Sogn og Fjkordane on the wild west coast.
Nor does the picture change significantly when the Greater Oslo area is included, that is to say the Akershus province; here, there are 6 600 inhabitants per store. One should also consider the fact that of the almost 5.3 million Norwegians, almost 1.3 million live here alone.
And you have to keep the geography of this elongated country in mind with its dimensions: it's more than 1 600 km from the north to the south - that's just as far as from Kristiansand at the southern point of Norway to Florence in Italy.
The statistics department at the Dähne Verlag publishing house records 20 trading companies with a total of 1 125 locations who are active in the field of home improvement. Here, it is particularly noticeable that only one markedly large-scale specialist from Central Europe - Bauhaus - is active in the country, and that also with only two locations.

In contrast, the DIY specialists Byggmax (with more than 220 000 m² overall retail space the largest in Norway in terms of retail space) and Clas Ohlson from Sweden (take a look at the article about Sweden in this edition) are very strongly represented with their western neighbours, as well as the relevant trading companies from Denmark, such as Jem & Fix or the paint specialist Flügger. From Finland, Rautakesko is active in Norway with the Byggmakker group.
In addition, the purchasing group Scandek, which operates in the whole of Scandinavia, has got an important member in Norway: the XL-Bygg chain operated by Nordek A/S with almost 100 locations. The Danish Scandek member is Ditas (with the XL-Byg stores), in Sweden the Byggtrygg AB cooperative with…