By no means dead and buried

Is the end of do-it-yourself nigh? When Sergio Giroldi, boss of Europe's third-biggest and Germany's biggest DIY chain, Obi, says "We will not be a do-it-yourself retailer or supplier, we will be something different"; when Véronique Laury, who heads Europe's second-biggest DIY operator Kingfisher, finds herself compelled to refute the much-discussed statement "DIY is dead" from the conference platform - does this signal the imminent demise of the sector? No, of course it doesn't. The quoted comments were made during the platform discussion at the 3rd Global DIY-Summit in London, and it says a lot for the organisers that, aside from the somewhat pithy congress motto "Retail revolution - The future of home improvement", they evidently showed an instinct for the more fundamental issues that the sector has to get to grips with. This is because do-it-yourself is no longer what it once was. The players in established markets are reporting unanimously that the affinity with DIY and DIY know-how are diminishing rapidly, especially among the younger generation; and in the new markets that have been developed in the last few years, a real do-it-yourself mentality is often lacking for (socio-)cultural reasons. In retrospect, the efforts made by the sector in years gone by to establish the concept of home improvement as its core competence alongside the concept of DIY now seem very forward-thinking. With this self-awareness the DIY sector has good prospects of meeting the challenges of the modern retail landscape.

Online retailing, another topic that the summit focused on, should be the priority here. It is blatantly obvious from this that the entire social environment in which the DIY trade operates is changing. Style and trends are now becoming increasingly important to consumers with regard to living space and to a greater extent in the garden too. Home and garden, patio and balcony are viewed as an individual statement and an expression of one's personality. The bad news is that while lifestyle is assuming greater significance, doing it oneself is becoming less important. More than ever, DIY stores are charged with communicating this knowledge on the one hand and with developing suitable service offers on the other. The sector is…