Slightly declining sales area in the Netherlands

This year one name has definitively disappeared from the Dutch home improvement market: there are no more Formido stores. In February the Maxeda Group reported that the last of 44 locations had been converted to the Praxis brand. With the 191 stores and more than 704 000 m² of retail space at the end of the year 2019, Praxis is building up its position as largest chain of DIY stores in the Netherlands.
However as group of companies, Intergamma is the larger DIY retailer in the country when location and retail space are used as criteria: both of their franchise systems, Gamma and Karewei, together amount to 900 000 m² retail space - that is more than 40 per cent of the 2.178 mio m² retail space which the nine major DIY store sales channels in the Netherlands exhibit together.

According to statistics by the Dähne Verlag publishing house, this figure dropped in 2019 by 1.2 per cent. The number of locations even declined by 4.0 per cent to 747 at the end of the year.
However this does not include the three major distribution channels from the rural trade. Welkoop, Uw Groene Vakwinkel and Boeren­bond have 305 000 m² retail space together, which is shared among almost 400 locations. Not included in the table are the 62 stores which, although they are affiliated to DGN retail, do not use either of the two brands Hubo or Multimate.
And one more note on the pure DIY stores: the German Hornbach chain now has a further location in its neighbouring country (see the separate article in this edition).