Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy above average

Over the past three years, the bathroom furniture market in Europe has defied the problems caused by Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, high inflation in Europe and supply problems due to various material bottlenecks. The market developed differently from 2022 to 2022 (2023??) due to all these crises, however. This is a key point of the new study ‘Bathroom furniture, mirror cabinets and illuminated mirrors in Europe - Top 10 countries compared from 2015 to 2030’ by the Rhineland-based management consultancy Titze. The market is being driven less by the slump in new construction and more by the modernisation and renovation of bathrooms.

The trade benefited from strong demand. The growing contract market for bathroom furniture was also booming worldwide and end customers were offered complete price transparency for products thanks to the continuous growth in online trade. The future trend is difficult, according to the Neuss-based company. The volume of new construction was at a high level until 2021 and has been suffering considerably from high inflation and rising interest rates since 2023. "However, the volume for modernisation and renovation is enormous and will be implemented by many end customers in the second half of life," explains management consultant Winfried Titze.

Of course, the course of the war in Ukraine, the current political situation in the Middle East and the rather difficult economic situation that emerged in spring 2023 could continue to influence the sales situation. "Our analysis assumes, however, that these global political problems will have had an impact in 2023, but that sustainability will gain the upper hand as early as 2024." In addition to restrained new construction, this trend will be driven primarily by the potential of modernisation and bathroom renovation.

In 2022, bathroom furniture, mirror cabinets and illuminated mirrors worth EUR 2.667 billion were sold at ex-factory prices in the top 10 European countries. This was 11.6% more than in 2020. According to Titze, the total corresponds to a cumulative trade volume of EUR 6.442 billion in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Poland.

Significant changes

Almost 77 percent of the sales volume is currently accounted for by bathroom furniture, a further 12 percent by mirror…