Uninterrupted growth

The UK retail consultants Verdict forecast that the DIY and garden market will grow by 32.6 per cent between 2003 and 2008, whereas the retail industry as a whole will achieve an increase of only 23.1 per cent over this same period. Factors crucial to this growth include investment in the building sector that is paying off in the long term, the increasing popularity of DIY and gardening as hobbies, and consumers’ growing confidence in their ability to tackle even relatively sophisticated DIY projects. Further impetus comes from the side of the retailers: more and more DIY groups want to offer more than a limited range of DIY products and so are expanding their assortment by the addition of home improvement lines. These facts emerge from Verdict’s recent report on “DIY and Gardening Retailers 2003”.The DIY market resembles a fortress, since the continuously high rates of growth make it difficult for non-specialists to get into the market. What is more, the DIY specialists are able to capitalise on their secure position and flex their muscles by generating sales through the addition of complementary products that include furniture, floor coverings and housewares.The battlefield for the DIY industry has grown in size, so that the struggle is now for a share of consumers’ total spend on home and garden. All the major DIY retailers have orientated themselves to home improvement by expanding their product offer in the “soft” DIY segment. According to Verdict estimates, the big three in the UK DIY market, B&Q, Focus Wickes and Homebase, account for 45.6 per cent of the DIY and gardening market volume, which the market analysts put at £ 16 bn (m 23.4 bn) for 2003. There is potential for further development in the marginal segments of furniture, floor coverings and housewares, where their market share currently comes to five per cent. Verdict estimates that it could increase to seven per cent by 2008, principally by means of optimising product ranges and merchandising. This would signify growth of £ 900 mio  (m 1.3 bn), or the equivalent of the sales achieved by Focus, the soft DIY part of the Focus Wickes group.Focus and Homebase, however, must continue to fight for their market share in the core business and withstand the pressure from B&Q. At present one out of every four pounds spent on DIY or gardening lands in a B&Q till. This totals more than the two competitor groups achieve together, and the trend is upward. It is obvious to Verdict that the…