Smart and sexy

The bathroom is becoming "smarter and sexy". At least that's the belief of the German market researcher Winfried Titze, who observes the European market together with his corporate consultancy and regularly publishes surveys.
Titze bases his theory of the sexy bathroom on aspects including the positive development in mirror cabinets and, above all, illuminated mirrors. "These awaken specific desires in the bathroom and the growing consumer interest in bathroom furnishings is pushing this development even more," says the expert Winfried Titze.
He examined the overall market for bathroom furniture, mirrored cabinets and illuminated mirrors in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Great Britain, France and Italy. The market volume in these nine countries adds up to EUR 3 400 bn in terms of consumer prices. 77 per cent of the volume in Central Europe is attributed to bathroom furniture, 14 per cent to mirror cabinets and nine per cent to illuminated mirrors.
Titze identified that, while the German-speaking sales region is stagnating at a high level, France, the largest sales market in terms of area, is losing importance. On the other hand, positive developments were determined in Great Britain and the Netherlands in 2017. Almost 350 manufacturers share the volume of sales in Central Europe.
If only bathroom furniture is taken into account, Great Britain and the Netherlands could record the highest levels of growth. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on the other hand, the market is stagnating while the markets in France and Italy are clearly declining.
The DIY trade still continues to play a significant role in the distribution of bathroom furniture, mirror cabinets and illuminated mirrors. With a market share of 20.9 per cent - which is EUR 710.5 mio - it represents the second largest distribution channel in this product category in the investigated countries. However, the distance to the primary sales channel, the furniture and kitchen trade, is more than 50 per cent, while the distance to the number three in the ranking of sales channels, the bathroom and sanitary trade, accounts for just EUR 18.8 mio - that is 0.6 percentage points.

However this ranking is by no means the same in the individual countries. For example the DIY…