Talk to one another!

"Brands - and I'm talking of suppliers brands - will play an increasingly important role in the future." "In ten years at the latest, we will have only three to four market participants - and that in Europe as a whole." "Competition, also with the major Internet players, leads to a radical democratisation of the trade as a whole."
Pointed though these statements may be, they are not revolutionary. What has made the sector sit up and listen, however, is the person who made them: Sergio Giroldi, CEO of Obi, is advocating the good idea of cooperation.
The headline interview with the diy magazine, the trade journal for the German-speaking DIY and garden sector published by Dähne Verlag, provided plenty of talking points. We have seldom experienced such a big reaction to a feature. And because Giroldi is not only at the helm of Germany's market leader, but also of the number three DIY store chain in Europe as well as being president of the European DIY retail association Edra, we are printing this interview in DIY International too.
It may be the case that the climate in the sector is changing, to be precise for the better. Admittedly, the fact that retailers are only now (re)discovering the industry as a partner in dialogue is not the result of any mindfulness therapy for retail managers; it is driven by brutal economic pressure, with competition from the Internet breathing down the neck of the high street stores.

This doesn't make the new willingness to communicate a bad thing, especially as it is falling on receptive ears. "The manufacturer-distributor collaboration is fundamental to develop the sector," says César Navarro, for example. We interviewed Navarro, president of the Spanish manufacturers' association AFEB, for the regional report on Spain featured in this issue.
The best opportunity to practise the new culture of communication is offered by the upcoming 6th Global DIY Summit, especially as the organisers have a keen instinct for the issues that are topical in the sector at the moment. It is precisely on this subject of "a new kind of cooperation between retailers and suppliers" that they have scheduled a high-profile panel discussion involving Kingfisher CEO Véronique Laury and Sylvain Prud'homme…