Austria and Switzerland get off to a better start to the year

The quarterly figures for DIY stores in Austria and Switzerland are more positive than those in Germany. The Austrian sector recorded growth of 0.5 per cent in the first quarter, with total gross turnover of EUR 644.1 mio. These figures from the GfK Total Store Report were published by the German DIY trade association BHB.

Automotive (+17.2 per cent) and garden tools, irrigation and drainage (+17.1 per cent) performed particularly well. The sectors that saw declines were tiles (-8.9 per cent) and electrical goods (-8.2 per cent).

In Switzerland, although DIY stores saw a 3.2 per cent decline compared with the same quarter last year – the BHB cites one-off national factors – they posted a 1.0 per cent increase on a like-for-like basis. Their total gross turnover amounted to CHF 694.3 mio (EUR 758.4 mio).

Here, too, there was an upturn in the automotive sector (+3.7 per cent) and…