German DIY retailers losing out abroad

German DIY store operators experienced contrasting sales trends at home and abroad last year. While sales resulting from all operations in the domestic and foreign markets in 2014 declined by around € 700 mio (-2.4 per cent), sales in their German stores increased by nearly € 470 mio (+2.3 per cent). These figures were collected by Dähne Verlag for its annual DIY market statistics.
The main reason for this opposing trend was the bankruptcy of the Praktiker Group in 2013. While Praktiker’s foreign subsidiaries were sold to national and international operators, removing these sales from the figures, a total of 166 of the 323 Praktiker and Max Bahr stores that existed at the end of 2013 were sold, 132 of them to German competitors in the DIY market. The stores that were thus saved were able to generate sales again in 2014 and were responsible to a large extent for the increase in sales within Germany last year.
Following a drop in the number of DIY stores in Germany in 2013, this number declined by a further 46 outlets in 2014 to leave 3 054 stores. Obi was once again the biggest DIY store operator, increasing its sales by 3.0 per cent to € 6.9 bn in total (Germany: +8.7 per cent, € 3.76 bn). The biggest jump in sales in 2014 was achieved by the Hagebau and Zeus DIY stores, with an overall increase of 21.8 per cent to € 2.87 bn (Germany: +27.6 per cent, € 2.64 bn). This was due primarily to new and acquired locations.
Hornbach were the most productive of all DIY store operators in terms of area with sales of € 2 286 per square metre (+1.3 per cent). The top 20 companies on the German DIY scene had sales overall of around € 1 651 per square metre of retail area, € 11 more than in 2013.