Future integration into large-format stores

Granbrico currently operates three locations in Italy.
Three trading brands are united under the umbrella of the Grancasa group: Grancasa offers furniture, electrical appliances and housewares, and sporting goods are available from Sport Planet. The DIY trading format, Granbrico, was set up in 1999 and currently has three outlets. The group, which has more than 1 000 employees, intends to invest heavily in new openings in southern Italy by the end of 2005. DIY in Europe spoke with Marco Morosi, who heads the Granbrico brand, about progress and targets.
The purchase of the former Praktiker store in San Giuliano Milanese in 1999, followed by the outlet in Paderno, represented your entry into the DIY retail trade. How did you manage to acquire this German brand’s stores?
It is already several years since we weighed up the possibility of extending our interests to the home improvement market as well. I say extending, since there already is a DIY section in all our Grancasa stores; a section that we are very happy with, and where you can find products of a general kind. We wanted to expand on this theme, and the outlet in San Giuliano Milanese offered us the opportunity to do so. Immediately following the takeover came a period of around one year when the old and new managements worked together on the transfer of know-how.
Marco Morosi has responsibility for the Granbrico retail format.
From Praktiker to Granbrico: what’s the difference?
Our motto is “Do-it-yourself for everyone”, and taking this as our basis we have geared the Granbrico brand to the experienced DIYer, though avoiding any extremes. For instance, we don’t stock certain building materials, and have cut down on the area of doors and windows in favour of other product categories.
Which ones?
The pet department, for example, for which a layout was developed with 2.20 m high shelving on an overall area of 90 m², where all the multi-premium families are available along with pesticides and accessories. I am convinced that this is a big growth market, where sales are going up by ten per cent annually. It is a fact that the pet sector is growing and that customers don’t hold back when its comes to making their purchases; what’s more, it gives us good profit margins, specially in the case of accessory lines.
Granbrico goes for a deep range and special offers.
Nearly all DIY stores have their sights set on female customers.
We’ve made the same decision – purchasing decisions by female customers are crucial in the pet…