Turnaround is slow in coming

A press report from the BHB reveals that the volume of sales recorded in Germany by DIY retailers with a shed sales area in excess of 1 000 m² went down in the first six months of 2006 by 0.9 per cent on the same period last year to € 9 bn, which amounts to a loss of 3.8 per cent like-for-like. Furthermore, the BHB reported that garden business has meanwhile made a good recovery, in June alone recording an increase of 6.1 per cent on the previous year. The entire garden business still maintains a share of nearly 27 per cent of DIY store sales at the end of half a year. By contrast, many traditional products in the DIY range sold less well than one year previously. In this context, products in the categories of tools/machinery, hardware/security systems and wood/plastics have to varying degrees fallen short of their individual results from last year. There is also a certain amount of catching-up to be done in the field of interior decoration and design.