Obi sales slightly down on 2021, but around 5 per cent up on 2019

After a steady growth in sales between 2016 and 2020, Obi, like many other DIY store operators in Germany, suffered a setback in the second year of the coronavirus crisis in 2021. This was largely due to the 2021 lockdown of stores in Germany that had remained open in 2020 and had contributed to a strong increase in sales for the group, which is positioned across Europe. Without its European business outside Germany, the decline in sales for Obi in 2021 would therefore have been much more severe.

This left net sales of EUR 7.24 bn for the entire group at the end of 2021. This is the result of figures prepared by Dähne Verlag for its statistics published in August 2022 (Statistics Home Improvement Retail Europe 2022). It should be noted that despite the slight decline of minus 2.2 per cent, sales at the end of 2021 were still 5.4 per cent higher than the figure for 2019 - the year before the global coronavirus pandemic broke out. Overall, Europe's no. 3 DIY and garden retailer increased its sales by 19.3 per cent between 2016 and 2021 (see chart).