Common suffering

GfK has been monitoring the sector Paints within its Point of Sales-Panel in various European countries for many years. The following excerpt covers the retail channels DIY superstores and mass merchandisers for France, Germany and Great Britain.
Included are the most important product groups, namely emulsions, trim/metal paints and woodcare total (incl. woodstains, woodpaints, woodoils, etc.)Chart 1 shows the share and development of the countries in terms of value on the left hand side and the development in terms of volume in 2017 on the right hand side.
The total market size for 2017 amounts to EUR 760 mio for Germany respectively to EUR 911 mio for Great Britain and to EUR 933 mio for France (see chart 2).
In terms of value, all three markets are in decline; Germany and France by 1.9 per cent compared to the previous year 2016, whereas the British market dropped by 10.5 per cent based on the euro respectively by 3.7 per cent based on the pound (due to currency fluctuation). When it comes to sales volume, both the German (-3.7 per cent) and the British market (-7.4) declined, whereas for France a growth of 1.9 per cent was observable.

In regard to the market structure (see charts 2/3), emulsions (wall paints) are by far the biggest segment, both in terms of volume and value for all countries. All segments have been uniformly declining in terms of value in 2017. Regarding volume, at least in France emulsions could perform better than in the previous year.

in France, there is a significant trend to white wall paints, generally sold in large package sizes. Compared to coloured emulsions, the average price per litre for pure white paint is lower. In addition, discounts and numerous in-store promotions are affecting the overall price level. This explains that despite a growth in volume the turnover for emulsions slightly declined.
Consumers are turning towards multi-purpose products, which can be applied on multiple surfaces (wood, metal, mineral surfaces). The lack of innovations during the last few years makes it harder for the market to grow.
In Germany, the different paint categories performed rather uniformly in respect to sales volume, with slight declines for all categories. Both for emulsions and for woodcare, the higher average price per litre has had a stabilising impact on the turnover.
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