"We should not forget that there are opportunities"

BHB President and Obi board member Franz-Peter Tepaß opened the congress of the German DIY industry, organised by the industry association BHB, with confident words. However, he did not gloss over the current situation. "The margin this year and next year will fall in trade and industry," he warned. "We will make a little less money." Sales are stable at the moment, he said, but are very inflation-driven.

Despite rapidly rising energy costs – a factor of three in Germany, a factor of six abroad – there will definitely be no closures, he said.

According to Tepaß, the industry is already seeing the change in customer behaviour in the development of its assortment. Decorative assortments are currently weakening because "at the moment, customers are buying more with their heads than with their hearts". Specifically, the renovation ranges are growing.

However, Tepaß also sees this as an opportunity because the industry has precisely the solutions for customers who want to be smart and save money. "2023 will be tougher, but there is a 2024," he said. "We have to manage our costs, but we should not forget that there are opportunities."

Robert Kecskes of market research company GfK gave a recent figure. In the first half of the year, DIY sales grew by 5.6 per cent. However, this growth comes "exclusively from the offline sector," Kecskes specified.

Yesterday and today, around 500 decision-makers from the German and German-speaking DIY sector are meeting in Bonn, including around 100 participants from retail.