Growth in France

The French DIY market experienced 5.2 per cent growth to € 20.14 bn in 2006, as ascertained by the industry association, Unibal. The figures include the garden sales notched up by the DIY stores, which amount to € 1.71 bn. Last year's main winners were the DIY retailers, whose gross sales went up by 7.9 per cent. There was a 3.7 per cent increase in the sales/m² figure. Unibal also identified an increase of 0.7 per cent in the case of retail sales made by builders' merchants. On the other hand, though, sales losses were recorded by the traditional hardware trade (-4 per cent) and both supermarkets and hypermarkets (-0.6 per cent).