Double anniversary

June 1964 saw the founding of a buying group by 34 builders’ merchants from northern and western Germany. In the four decades since then, Hagebau has developed from a buying group into a group service headquarters.
Today Hagebau numbers 248 members (including strategic alliances). Since 1995 Hagebau has been in Austria as well, where it attracted eleven former Öbau members at the beginning of this year. And in the year 1997 a new, high-growth business division was added when specialist timber merchants were included.
The Hagebaumarkt outlets are celebrating their 25th anniversary.
The builders’ merchant cooperative built up a retail arm in the form of the Hagebaumarkt outlets in parallel to its core business. The first of these outlets opened in 1979. At the end of 2003, nearly 25 years later, the number of Hagebau DIY stores had grown to 314, 284 of them in Germany. Added to these are 43 Hagebau Kompakt stores and two separate garden centres, also in Germany. Sales of approximately € 1.387 bn were notched up by this total of 359 stores in 2003 on a combined retail area of 1.272 mio m², which amounts to a 21.6 per cent share of Hagebau’s overall sales of € 6.412 bn (builders’ merchants, timber merchants and DIY stores combined).
The concept, developed as a franchise system for the group’s voluntary members, makes use of the strengths of the cooperative structure, which combines the regional market expertise of the individual members with the professional management supplied by a dedicated central office.
The members are Hagebau shareholders and at the same time its customers. In this latter capacity they can take advantage of an unbroken chain of services which is maintained by the staff of around 380 in Soltau. Joint purchasing has not been pushed into the background, but has rather been augmented. In questions of distribution, for example, the members operating Hagebau stores have the backing of a close-meshed network of regional sales managers. Advertising and marketing campaigns are run on a national scale. The planning of retail and specialist trade outlets is undertaken by departments based at central office.
Hagebaumarkt stores: retail area and net sales(.pdf-Datei zum Herunterladen)
Hagebaumarkt DIY stores: percentage sales by product category(.pdf-Datei zum Herunterladen)
Hagebaumarkt outlets in Europe(.pdf-Datei zum Herunterladen)
“Hagebau was quick to recognise the importance of even more extensive services for the trade,” says chief executive officer…