The Romanians are investing in their homes

The Romanian DIY market has proven itself to be quite stable in recent years. That can also be said of 2019 and the start of 2020, because the economic climate has favoured the industry: the construction market has grown, and people have invested in the renovation of their homes.
As in all other cases, it also applies here that, due to the impact of Covid-19, no serious forecasts could be made for 2020 at the time when this edition was in progress. All home improvement stores were suddenly closed, but at the start of April they were allowed to open again. Yet in this phase they still registered a declining frequency. As in other countries too, the Romanian retailers tried to compensate for sales declines in their physical stores through expanded online services. "It will be a difficult year for the DIY market with an obvious decrease of sales and very big challenges to keep the employees," said Claudiu Ciobanu, chief editor of bricoretail.ro at that time.
So let's restrict ourselves to taking a look back. Sales by the Romanian DIY retailers grew in the year 2019 by at least 10 per cent, estimate industry experts. This is reported by the online service bricoretail.ro. However the official figures will only be published after this edition's editorial deadline. In 2018 the growth rate lay even more significantly over this value: with an increase of 27 per cent, the industry achieved overall sales of almost EUR 3 bn.
Around 60 per cent of the overall sales with DIY products in Romania are attributed to the modern ranged DIY retailers, in particular Dedeman, Leroy Merlin, Arabesque/Mathaus, Hornbach and Brico Dépôt. Specialists for furniture, accessories and decoration are also included. In concrete terms, these are Ikea (two stores), Jysk (85), Kika (2), Moemax (2), Mobexpert, Diego (35), Romstal (12) and others also count. The remaining 40 per cent are attributed to independent stores and the traditional trade, specialised online shops as well as FMCG retailers, in particular hypermarkets and cash & carry formats.
The undisputed market leader of the Romanian market is Dedemann. In the year 2019 it is estimated that it made sales of EUR 1.8 bn and thus achieved growth of 14 per cent. The estimates take into account the fact that Dedeman recorded in the first half of 2019, according to official preliminary data, sales increases of 15 per cent to over 3.5 bn Lei (EUR 745 mio).
The company is controlled by the brothers Adrian and Dragos¸ Pava˘l. It has currently…