DIY stores in Germany see 1.5 per cent drop in sales

DIY stores in Germany were unable to maintain their sales at the previous year's level. In nominal terms, their sales fell by 1.5 per cent year on year to a total volume of EUR 20.92 bn. On a like-for-like basis, they saw a 1.0 per cent drop in sales. This means a decline in sales for the second year in a row - "we have never had that before," said René Haßfeld, CEO of Toom Baumarkt and spokesperson for the BHB board at the association's annual press conference in Cologne today; he was referring to the figures in the BHB/GfK Total Store Report. This means that the growth that the industry had built up in the wake of COVID-19 has been eroded again, he said. "We are approaching the figures from 2019," he said. Haßfeld named two main reasons for the decline in sales: the bad weather from mid-April, which hit garden sales, and political uncertainty. “Customers held back on us in the last…