Weak rouble and strong housing construction

 The Russian DIY market’s volume grew by 10.5 per cent to RUB 1.07 tn last year. These preliminary figures were published by the market research company, Infoline. They explain the market growth with the increase in prices, due to the depreciation of the rouble against the US dollar and the Euro, as well as the high growth rates in housing construction. The value of the rouble to the Euro has almost halved within a year; the exchange rate has fallen from approximately 40 roubles to the Euro at the beginning of 2014 to between 70 and 80 roubles at the end of the year. In the previous year, the Russian market grew by almost eight per cent.
The undisputed leader amongst the DIY store operators in Russia is still the French operator Leroy Merlin, which increased its Russian store numbers by six to 34 in 2014. The German chain Obi also managed to defend its number two position by expanding its branch network to a total of 24 stores, with three new megastores. Despite the crisis, Obi plans to open a further 18 stores in the coming year. The domestic DIY operators also expanded their sales areas in 2014, although to a lesser extent.