Store with a speciality

The Esselink Group of the Netherlands operates four builders' merchants and six DIY stores, five Gamma and one Karwei outlet. With a retail area of 5 800 m² the latest Gamma in Goes is the biggest home improvement store in the Zeeland region in the south-west of the country. It is also the fourth store to feature the new Gamma Focus concept.
This concept shifts the emphasis more to the building materials assortment and away from decorating ranges. Apart from the expansion of the overall product offering, the biggest changes have been made in the garden department. Although no plants are on sale, the garden building materials category has been extended, along with the provision of advice by specialised staff. "Customers can visit the Gamma Goes store to get advice from our garden planners in the garden department," says managing director Teus-Jan van Dieren.
The new Gamma concept is oriented in particular to customers with regular requirements. "As with supermarkets, it is the location that dictates the choice of shopping venue. Consumers look to see which store is closest," says van Dieren. "In Goes we have created the right conditions with long opening hours, 120 parking spaces and good accessibility."

One special topic with which van Dieren is also involved is 3D printing. Some time ago he established the company 3Dlink, which operates across the country and now also offers its services in Gamma in Goes. He is aware of the difficulties associated with an offer of this kind and terms it "an adventure". An outsider's notion would usually be too simple. "Scan, print, done" - in practice it is not that easy, and the company is not earning any money with it yet.
The approach is a good fit for a DIY store, however, because van Dieren aims primarily to offer "solutions for non-technical people". The price continues to be a sensitive issue, he says: "Our biggest challenge is that customers want to print an article in 3D, but don't believe that it is worth it." 
Broken individual parts are often reprinted, for example shower hinges. "But even if the exchange of the complete shower enclosure is much more complicated than printing a hinge that is no longer available, there's always a price limit." As a shortened version taken from Mix.