No end to expansionary policy

Data collected by the publishing house of Dähne shows that the number of DIY superstores both national and international belonging to the 30 largest German DIY trading groups has risen by 5.3 per cent, from 3 447 to 3 630, over the last twelve months. The ten largest DIY store operators alone accounted for 2 710 of this number at the end of 2004, which means that their total has risen by almost 66 per cent within just ten years (1994: 1 634 stores). The biggest winner here was Praktiker, with a 112 per cent increase in outlets, ahead of Obi (+62.6 per cent) and Hagebau (+54.6 per cent).
A detailed account of the development of the German DIY store operators can be found in the coming issue 3-4/05 of our specialist magazine DIY in Europe.