Decline of market share

The significance of the buying groups is on the decline in the Canadian hardware/home improvement market. In the past five years their market share has dropped from 43.1 per cent to 32.2 per cent. While sales increased year over year from 1997 to 2000, from 2000 to 2001 sales actually dropped for the first time: from CDN $ 9.6 bn to $ 9.1 bn. Sales by the independents also declined, according to a report from the Canadian trade publication, Hardlines Quarterly. The total market share of all independent dealers today equals about 47.3 per cent, which means that it has gone down by almost 30 per cent within the last five years.