Third Virtual DIY Summit on the current state of the industry

For the third Virtual DIY Summit 2023, John Herbert, managing director of the international DIY association Edra/Ghin, welcomed several hundred registered participants, who were connected live via the internet from all over the world. The recording will still be available after the event; the organisers expect around 2,000 downloads worldwide. Obi, Germany's largest DIY store operator, and Wolfcraft made the online congress possible as sponsors.

"Business is not very good this year," said John Herbert, assessing the current state of the industry, "but it's getting better". Last year, however, the world market as a whole developed positively. Herbert presented the first figures from the Home Improvement Report Retail Worldwide, which Dähne Verlag publishes in cooperation with the international trade and manufacturers' associations Edra/Ghin and Hima (see our news item from Friday).

A somewhat more pessimistic outlook was given by Bob Chermin and Duncan Simmonds of the consulting firm OC&C. They expect that it will take years for the industry to return to pre-crisis levels. As an important task for the future, they advised the industry, among other things, to advance its efforts in sustainability and to make them known to the outside world.

Christian Hein from Obi demonstrated to the audience in his lecture how Obi uses user data of its customers in a targeted manner, also with regard to its advertising budget, in order to strengthen the local markets. For the coming years, Hein expects strong growth in online sales at Obi, but not in the entire industry.

Christoph Scheuble from Cubemos dealt with the topics of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and the new regulations passed by the EU in his presentation. Among other things, he referred to how Wolfcraft implements these topics in its strategy.

Alexander Boersch from Deloitte contributed an outlook on the current situation of the global economy. The difficult situation this year will continue in 2024, he predicted, but also saw some positive signs, such as the stable labour market and falling inflation in the EU.

Kati Ihamäki from Fiskars reported on the efforts that Fiskars is making in terms of sustainability. On this topic, it is particularly important that the entire industry works together, she appealed to the audience.

Cooperation in uncertain times was the topic chosen by Madeleine de Hauke from Business4Good, who gave the closing talk as special guest. As could be seen from the parallel chat, the audience particularly appreciated that the speaker gave very practical tips on how managers can communicate better with their staff.