The future is British

The future of home improvement is British. At any rate, that's the impression one gets when considering the trends that are reach­ing the European mainland from the British Isles. The regional report in this issue of DIY International offers a good opportunity for such a glimpse of what's going on in the future lab. One example that is particularly topical at this time of the year is the garden centre. British garden centres were and still are regarded by their continental counterparts as the great role model. Any company opening a new garden centre or revamping an existing one aims to create a destination store that will attract entire families on an out­ing. This also explains why the Dutch, the second great role model for German garden centre operators, are daring to expand into the German market. We also report in this issue of DIY International on Intratuin's plans for Germany. 

Or take the example of e-commerce. In Great Britain, where the bricks-and-mortar trade encountered difficulties earlier and the number of committed Internet shoppers is higher than in the rest of Europe, DIY stores too have been compelled to engage sooner and more forcefully with this competition, which is by no means virtual. Just how apt the word "compelled" is here is demonstrated by the latest plans put forward by B&Q and Homebase for a painful contraction of their retail areas. Given that the credo of the en­tire industry for decades could be summed up in one word, "expansion", it seems that these vast retail areas are now becoming a millstone around its neck. Is the British DIY sector leading the way here too? The drive for unchecked big box expansion has come to a halt, at least in the established markets of Europe. And here also the British are showing how things might be done in the future, or how a strategic variant might look: Kingfisher's Screwfix format seems to be catching on even in the German market, one of the most hotly contested markets in the world. The number of Screwfix outlets is set to more than double in the near future. Now a similar concept has appeared in continental Europe with Hornbach's compact store format. We also report on this in the latest issue. Does learning from the British mean learning to divine the future…