Newsletter
Shop
Login
Menü
Subscribe now
At present Castorama operates eight DIY superstores in Poland, one of the latest in Stettin. Six more are to be added right across the country by the end of 2001
Poland is by far the most interesting market for the DIY sector within eastern Europe. The competition is already accordingly well developed. Hardly any of the big cities where you cannot find at least a handful of locations. French and German groups above all, so alongside Castorama and its eight stores are Leroy Merlin (3), OBI (14), Praktiker (14), Wand & Boden (10), M3 (6) and Nomi (27).
One of the two most recent locations which opened last October is Stettin (Breslau is the other), which represents a rather special case. Situated only a few minutes by car from the border, this store has an interesting catchment area over on the other side of the frontier. What is more, the most north-easterly of German Castorama locations is only about 180 km away at Wildau near Berlin. So the network of Castorama locations between France, Germany and Poland is becoming closely meshed.
In Poland since 1997
It is a good three years since the opening of the first Casto store in Warsaw. For the French marketers at the time totally new territory and their first location in an east European country. They had to feel their way by gradual stages towards the requirements of their Polish customers. The activities of Poland’s DIYers are still today focused on the area of extensions and renovations. As a result the most important product categories in Stettin too are building materials, sanitation, tools, electrical appliances and timber, whereas the demand for decoration or garden products is only gradually developing. It is interesting to note that trade customers hardly play any sort of a role, specially in Stettin.
12 000 m², 50 000 articles, 200 employees
As in Stettin, a total of five of the eight DIY outlets in Poland are situated in the direct vicinity of Géant or Carrefour shopping centres.
The fact that the approximately 200 employees are all Polish is self-evident for store manager Szymon Kapturski. Also during the selection of suppliers every endeavour is made at least to consider Polish firms, even if they often obtain their goods from abroad. The aim is to achieve consistency of product quality and price level in comparison with the competition. Polish customers attach importance to good quality product ranges at the best possible price.
It is still possible to keep track of the competition in Stettin: the Castorama in the Ul. Ku Sloncu is the only one in the city – though a second one is not impossible. Nevertheless, store manager Kapturski plans to try to attract potential new customers, in particular on the other side of the German-Polish border in neighbouring Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Thought has been given to some initial advertisements, on which the brakes are only being applied because of the many times higher cost.
One of the two most recent locations which opened last October is Stettin (Breslau is the other), which represents a rather special case. Situated only a few minutes by car from the border, this store has an interesting catchment area over on the other side of the frontier. What is more, the most north-easterly of German Castorama locations is only about 180 km away at Wildau near Berlin. So the network of Castorama locations between France, Germany and Poland is becoming closely meshed.
In Poland since 1997
It is a good three years since the opening of the first Casto store in Warsaw. For the French marketers at the time totally new territory and their first location in an east European country. They had to feel their way by gradual stages towards the requirements of their Polish customers. The activities of Poland’s DIYers are still today focused on the area of extensions and renovations. As a result the most important product categories in Stettin too are building materials, sanitation, tools, electrical appliances and timber, whereas the demand for decoration or garden products is only gradually developing. It is interesting to note that trade customers hardly play any sort of a role, specially in Stettin.
12 000 m², 50 000 articles, 200 employees
As in Stettin, a total of five of the eight DIY outlets in Poland are situated in the direct vicinity of Géant or Carrefour shopping centres.
The fact that the approximately 200 employees are all Polish is self-evident for store manager Szymon Kapturski. Also during the selection of suppliers every endeavour is made at least to consider Polish firms, even if they often obtain their goods from abroad. The aim is to achieve consistency of product quality and price level in comparison with the competition. Polish customers attach importance to good quality product ranges at the best possible price.
It is still possible to keep track of the competition in Stettin: the Castorama in the Ul. Ku Sloncu is the only one in the city – though a second one is not impossible. Nevertheless, store manager Kapturski plans to try to attract potential new customers, in particular on the other side of the German-Polish border in neighbouring Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Thought has been given to some initial advertisements, on which the brakes are only being applied because of the many times higher cost.
