That spring feeling

The so-called Arab Spring, which commenced in Egypt last year, has also had repercussions on the country’s home improvement market. “Customers have become more cautious,” states Dr Kamal Mostafa, who operates the only retail chain in the country to be exploiting the market with a systematic DIY store concept. Yet this country with its population of 90 mio could definitely take more DIY stores. Karim Mostafa, son of the company’s founder, regrets that no foreign operator has gained a foothold on the Egyptian market so far. “Having others enter the market would be to our advantage,” he admits frankly, since it would be possible to develop the market considerably better in tandem with additional players. “We would also work in cooperation with another player, we are open to many different ideas,” he explains. There would be enough potential customers: Mostafa estimates the reservoir of customers who could be made enthusiastic about the topic of home improvement at around ten per cent of the population. At present the food retailers with DIY and garden departments provide the main competition. The core business of the CMB Group with its workforce of some 3 000 is the production of paints and synthetic products for the building industry, which are marketed globally under the CMB brand name. In addition it manufactures building board and shower trays; the brand name in this field is Marmox. A network of relatively small stores emerged as a result of these activities, operating under the CMB banner mainly as specialists in the field of paint and synthetic products for the building industry. It was 1997 when Kamal Mostafa opened his first DIY store, for which he chose the name of Dary. The location features a sales area of approximately 4 500 m² and is geared to the concept of the Homebase chain in Britain or the regionally based Knauber chain in Germany. At that time John Herbert, who is today the general secretary of EDRA, the European DIY Retail Association, was managing director of Knauber and as such provided Dary with advice and assistance. Over and above this the company operates nine more stores between 500 m² and 1 000 m² in size. One focus of attention is on the décor ranges. This is connected on the one hand with the chain’s origins in the production of paint and on the other with an assessment of the target group. Karim Mustafa judges that Egyptians are less likely to be do-it-yourselfers and more probably customers who select the pro­ducts to improve…