News from the Edra studios

It was clear the joke was going to come at some point: "Thank you very much from me, John Herbert from the Edra studios in Cologne," is how the Edra/Ghin general secretary ended one of his "Meet the CEO" interviews in the Global DIY-Network - and he couldn't help grinning cheekily. Here are the short summaries of John Herbert's latest interviews as well as the online seminars held by Ken Hugh.

Will the boom on the DIY market triggered by Covid-19 continue this year? And was it a boom at all? These are the questions which Reinier Zuydgeest, Managing Consultant at USP Marketing Consultancy, in the Global DIY-Network, has been concerned with. For the DIY retailers, according to his analysis on the basis of the European Home Improvement Monitor, it was a boom. However from a consumer perspective, he was forced to discover that the overall spending for the home improvement market in 2020 dropped by 1.5 per cent. This is due to the fact that the costs of services by tradesmen are also included in this perspective, and they have dropped. The trend towards do-it-for-me, which has been observed for several years, came to a stop last year. However Zuydgeest expects that this will set in again soon - ageing society is the current buzzword - even if the labour shortage may put certain limits on this.
He paid special attention to the target group of the millennials, i.e. the 18 to 34 year-olds. They carried out significantly more DIY projects last year. Although all age-groups do show a "high willingness to do home improvement jobs" in the future, the millennials in particular are more enthusiastic here, he says.
Overall, there will be a slow shift from decorative to more constructive home improvement jobs, Zuydgeest expects. Total spending will also rise slightly, not least because expenditure on summer holidays will also be lower in 2021 than in previous years and, as a result, more budget will be available for home improvement.

The first half year, it was night, the second half year, it was day: that's how Verónica Valdez, CEO of the Peruvian DIY store chain Promart, described the year 2020. She was interviewed by the Edra/Ghin general secretary John Herbert in the "Meet the CEO" series.
The former chief finance officer of the Intercorp Retail Group, to which Promart belongs, took up her new position in May 2020 - 15 days before lockdown and the closure of all 32 stores. They have been…