Home-grown

It is extremely difficult to assess the size of the Romanian DIY market. Renowned market research companies refuse to provide estimates because of the lack of a database, while market participants talk about “derisible fluctuations” in the official statistics. Nevertheless the German Praktiker Group, which is involved in the country, has risked making an estimate: it is assuming a sales volume of € 3.9 bn for 2009. Another open question is that of the market leader. André Adamski, an expert on eastern Europe, names Dedeman (see the interview in this issue). After six recent new openings, the company now has 23 outlets with sales areas ranging from 6 000 to 18 000 m². Being thoroughly innovative, it is working on new concepts and has more than ten new stores at the planning stage. Bricostore has already appeared complete with a new concept. The company, which is part of the French Bresson Group, opened its 16th store in Baneasa, Bucharest, in early March. This outlet sports a new format which it is promoting under the slogan “more style, more ideas, more you”. Praktiker has by far the greatest number of stores in operation in Romania. However, this commitment brought the German group “comparatively high sales losses” last year. After all, the company’s 27 Romanian stores gave the Germans their second highest international sales in 2009, a sum of around € 248 mio; last year’s result is estimated at € 196 mio. Baumax, an Austrian company that currently has 13 stores in Romania following four new openings in 2010, sees the country as a field wide open for further expansion. The contribution of these stores is rated as disproportionately high. Romania is regarded as one of the company’s most important growth markets, along with Turkey. The claim to have been the very first to develop the DIY market in Romania, and to have opened the country’s first commercial centre with its vast offer of building materials, finishing and interior products, is made by a company that is often not even mentioned in market surveys: Ambient, which is headquartered in Sibiu, entered the market with this concept at the end of 2001. The official inauguration of the first outlet took place in April 2002. Do-it-yourself and home improvement is heavy on building materials in Romania. The Romanian DIYer is of the “hard” school, so it is not surprising that Ambient’s market presence includes builders’ merchants as well as its retail line. At present the company operates twelve shopping…