Mr. Bricolage’s prescription for a ten-point programme

The French DIY retail group Mr. Bricolage has announced a new store concept entitled “Au coeur des metiers” (“In/At the heart of the trades”). Designed for stores with a retail area below 2 000 m², it is intended to follow the “Au coeur de la maison” (“In the heart of the home”) concept launched just a year ago. It is suitable for 30 per cent of the network of outlets. One pilot store is to implement this concept before the end of 2004, and it is planned to be applied to 16 more stores during 2005. Mr. Bricolage justifies the new project by referring to the “Au coeur de la maison” concept, which has brought average sales growth of ten per cent to those stores where it has been implemented. Both concepts are part of a ten-point programme that head office believes will boost profitability once more. Net earnings before goodwill were down by 4.4 per cent to € 10.8 mio in the first six months. This was in particular due to the 33.3 per cent dip in profits to € 5.6 mio suffered by the 82 corporate stores, for which the ten-point plan envisages a new organisational structure with six regional offices.
The group’s entire network amounted to 579 stores at the middle of this year, 426 of them belonging to the Mr. Bricolage retail format and 153 Catena stores. This latter format is to be massively expanded. According to an announcement from the company, a development team created specifically for this purpose has already made around 100 contacts in pursuit of its goal.