So many DIY stores

For more than 25 years, Anne Plein-Alt worked in the research department of Dähne Verlag, compiling statistical data on the German and international DIY store and garden center industry. She played a major role in the Statistik Baumarkt + Garten DACH and the directory DIY-Handel in Deutschland. The publisher's most recent statistical work, the Home Improvement Report Retail Worldwide, which is published together with the Edra/Ghin and Hima associations, is based on her data. Anne Plein-Alt is retiring at the end of the year – an opportunity for Rainer Strnad, editor-in-chief of diy, to take a look back at the statistics published by the trade publisher with his long-standing colleague and reflect on the conditions under which the information was obtained.

You have been working on the statistics and trade directories published by Dähne Verlag since 1998, and have been observing the DIY and gardening market. What major changes have there been during this time?

Anne Plein-Alt: The really big changes are the consolidations, i.e. the fact that some companies have disappeared from the market. In particular, Praktiker and Baumax are worth mentioning here. But of course the markets have not simply disappeared, but were bought up and continued to be operated by other companies. I found that quite remarkable. This shows: the demand is there.

What surprised you the most?

What surprised me from the very beginning was how many DIY stores there are in Germany. Germany is a market with an insane number of DIY and hardware stores, both large and small. When I started, I really didn't realize that. And there were more and more. That's the amazing thing, and there are still new locations and new concepts, for example in the discount sector. There is still no end in sight.

A whole range of names that you dealt with at the beginning of your career no longer exist. Do you miss any of them?

Personally, I miss Max Bahr. As a DIY store, this format really stood out.

We have a saying in the publishing house that we use a bit ironically today. It's: There are still white spots. Do they really still exist?

I would say that there aren't many white spots left in Germany if you take into account all the types of business that cover the large area of DIY and home improvement stores; for example, Raiffeisen stores are also included because they are important regional suppliers.

You not only compiled the German statistics, but also our international ones. Given this, I'll ask: is there a format…