“We sell well-being”

Controversial discussions are perhaps not the worst signs of the quality of a conference. The 2nd Home Improvement Forum of EDRA and FEDIYMA, the European retail and manufacturing associations, held in Paris at the end of May, came under discussion by the delegates while it was still in progress. However individual points may be assessed, this congress has fulfilled the main function of such an event with style: bringing together the industry’s decision-makers and bringing them into discussions with each other. After all, among the 485 participants attending the event were the CEOs and top management of some 39 DIY retail companies, which means that 22 per cent of the delegates were from retailing. The fact that the participants really appreciated the quality of the conference is proved not least by the feedback that was collected at the end by means of an electronic voting tool. According to this, almost exactly one-third rated the congress “very good” and another third rated it “good”. And the forum achieved yet something else, in addition to its function as a contact platform, by making delegates aware of the opportunities the topic of home and garden improvement offers the industry, especially in Europe. This even against a background of markets that are at times challenging and always difficult to forecast: for private households the home is an item of expenditure that is not only stable, but the biggest of all. It is also of enormous emotional significance to people: their home stands for the fundamental values of security and individuality. This was picked up not least by Philippe Tible, CEO of Kingfisher France/Spain, in a speech that was felt by many to be programmatic. Incidentally, his contribution was in fact a speech, not a presentation. It was rhetorically polished and – to the displeasure of some, despite simultaneous interpretation – held in French, “the language of love and diplomacy” as Tible expressed it. “We find ourselves in a formidable market,” he said. “We are selling the continuing development of well-being.” That the growth opportunities also relate specifically to the garden market was pointed out by Frédéric Sambourg, president home improvement at Bricomarché and president of the French industry association FMB. One problem remains: that of strong fluctuations, often caused by the weather. Régis Degelcke, president of EDRA, showed the extremely varying market deve­l­opments experienced this last spring in his introductory…