Oh là là!

For the first time in its history the French DIY market is moving downward. In fact, it reports a drop of 2.2 per cent for a total market of € 22.47 bn in 2009. For the DIY superstores, that was also the first year of standstill (+ 0.2 per cent), whereas they had seen a rise of 2.5 per cent in 2008. “For the first time the DIY superstores’ rise in turnover is below the increase in store openings and expansions, which is 2.9 per cent up,” comments Rémy Dassant, who is responsible for surveys at Unibal, a manufacturers’ association. Sales per square metre came to € 2 536 in 2009, which translates into a fall of 2.4 per cent in real terms. The specialized trade, another distribution network that has seen dynamic growth in recent years, also suffered in 2009, with sales to the general public falling by 10 per cent (+ 1.5 per cent in 2008). For their part, in 2009 neither the supermarkets (- 4.7 per cent) nor the traditional distributors (- 3.9 per cent) managed to halt the downward tendency that has been evident for several seasons now. A consequence of the current economic crisis? Or the impact of the new law designed to modernise the economy? “The market decline is probably a consequence of both phenomena. The first few months of 2009 were difficult ones,” explains Gilles Caille, president of Unibal. Retail sales have indisputably been affected by a tendency towards cutting down on stocks, with many distributors anticipating in particular the new measures aimed at reducing the terms of payment. And this is happening even though a dispensatory agreement has been signed between French suppliers and distributors of DIY products that allows for a progressive reduction of the terms, from 90 days in 2009 to 45 days in 2012. “We suppliers have an interest in the diversity of our distributors. There was a risk of endangering the independents if these new terms were applied too ruthlessly. An agreement was definitely necessary.” It is true that the French market is continuing to consolidate little by little. Today the DIY superstores achieve 73.4 per cent of all DIY sales, far ahead of the builders’ merchants at 17.9 per cent. And, among the DIY retailers, the six leading distributors represent 94.7 per cent of the market, with the two leading groups, Kingfisher (Castorama and Brico Dépôt) and Adeo (Leroy Merlin, Bricoman, Weldom) accounting for 34.8 per cent each. Emerging behind them is the Mr. Bricolage group (13.3 per cent), buoyed up by the purchase of Le…