Undisputed market leader

The volume of the Finnish hardware market is estimated at roughly EUR 4 bn, although this estimate, based on figures from Statistics Finland, and the survey by Dähne Verlag take different retailers into consideration to some extent.
Nevertheless, an idea can be gained of the size of the market. According to these estimates, the construction supplies product range accounts for more than EUR 1 bn, timber for around EUR  900 mio and home improvement products account for the remainder.
The undisputed market leader is the Kesko Group, which also dominates the country's grocery business and operates in a host of other retail segments. Approximately 40 per cent of the market volume can be attributed to its 132 Finnish K-Rauta and Rautia stores in all. As well as this, the Kesko Group is active in the DIY trade in Sweden, Estonia and Latvia, having pulled out of Russia in 2018.
A number of foreign DIY retailers operate in Finland: Bauhaus of Germany, the Danish company Stark, plus Byggmax and Clas Ohlson from Sweden. The likewise Swedish Colorama Nordic Group also owns the speciality chain Värisilmä, which focuses on paint and painting supplies, wall and floor coverings and similar ranges. Since May 2018 the discount chain Hong Kong has been part of Rusta, a furniture discount outfit with stores in its home country of Sweden (91),  and in Norway (28) and Germany (2).

There are big differences in DIY store density in Finland too, as the detailed table of the 19 regions shows. The quota of inhabitants per store varies in extreme cases by almost fourfold when comparing the Åland islands in the Baltic with Helsinki. 30 per cent of Finns live in the capital, but only 20 per cent of the home improvement stores are located here. In Pirkanmaa, the region around Tampere, the country's third-largest city (Espoo, the second-largest, is part of the Helsinki conurbation), the DIY sector could still harbour growth potential, according to the statistics.