Home improvement stores in France end 2021 with sales up by 11.6 per cent

Sales in French home improvement stores last year rose by 11.61 per cent compared with 2020, and increased by 16.9 per cent by comparison with 2019. These figures were released by the French DIY retailers' association FMB, citing data from the Banque de France.

Due to the various lockdowns and reopenings of retail outlets, the sales curve for 2021 is extremely uneven. Up to April, growth rates were in double or triple digits compared with the same month of the previous year (for example, up by 221 per cent in April), while from May - with the exception of November - the rate of change was downward, at most down by 11.2 per cent in December.

This was because the second lockdown ended a year earlier in December 2020, sending sales rocketing once more. "DIY is the preferred hobby of the French, and they resorted to it all the more during the pandemic," said FMB chairman Mathieu Pivain, looking at the figures. "The sector has thus continued its double-digit growth, ending 2021 on a high note."