“I am very positive about the future”

Thierry Garnier is as happy with big gestures as small ones. The CEO of Kingfisher and current president of the international DIY association, Edra/Ghin, used the big stage at the opening of the Global DIY Summit with its 1 000 participants to once again promote the industry's Scope 3 initiative. During the interview a little later in the day, he insisted on wearing his congress badge for the photo: He wants to use this small gesture to demonstrate that he values and supports the association, its work and the Summit in particular.

The whole industry saw declining sales rates last year. Is the home improvement industry really a shrinking industry?

Thierry Garnier: We really had boom years during Covid. Then post-Covid, demand peaked, then the war started, inflation and costs rose, all together leading to recent industry declines.

On the macro side of economics in Europe, we see high interest rates leading to lower housing transactions. We have already seen relatively weak housing transaction figures in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and a part of all DIY spending is linked with these transactions.

However, personally, I am very positive about the future of the home improvement market for several reasons. One reason is net zero. All the governments will have to support households to decarbonise, to install insulation, heat pumps, solar panels, et cetera, and that will last for years. We will have these additional investments in the home improvement industry.

The other reason is the trend of working from home, even though there is some adjustment, but overall the world will work more from home than pre-Covid. And when you work more from home, you spend more on DIY.

And the third reason is that we have a new generation of DIYers who started during Covid. This underlying trend should support the market.

When we are out of these difficult times of higher costs of living, inflation, weaker housing transactions, I remain very optimistic about the market.

Would you say that these tendencies apply to all countries all over Europe?

All countries in Europe are following this trend. The paths could be slightly different, depending on fixed or flexible mortgages, interest rates, et cetera, but overall the trend is the same.

The home improvement industry depends to a large amount on manufacturing capacities in the Far East and especially in China. In the last year, we saw growing tensions between the Western hemisphere and the Far East. Will this have an impact on the purchasing behaviour…