The DIY & Garden Show, at London’s Earl’s Court 2, celebrated its 10th anniversary with an industry forum attracting around 150 delegates.
Introducing the forum, “DIY retailing: the next 10 years”, exhibition director Christopher Leonard Morgan said the industry was always moving forwards, innovating and transforming people’s lives and homes.
However, Richard Perks, director of retail research at conference sponsor Mintel, warned delegates that “the coming decade is when the demographic timebomb will impact the sector”. Europe’s declining birth rate would result in a “missing population”, he said. He suggested that in view of the aging DIY generation, industry players should gear their stores to provide a “softer, home enhancement” approach.
Manfred Maus, chairman of German DIY giant OBI and president of BHB (the German Association of DIY Retailers and Garden Centres), remained “extremely optimistic”.
“Customers are more demanding, products are more individual, production processes are more innovative and communications are more aggressive,” he said. “But only the organisation that can get closer to the customer will survive.
“Don’t sell a single product, sell a project,” was his advice.
Ian Cheshire, chief executive, international and development, of Kingfisher plc agreed that DIY was becoming a thing of the past: “We’re now in the ‘home improvements’ market – it’s a much broader vision,” he said. “Less pure DIY will be done, but people will still be home improvement focused and will invest a lot of money in achieving their vision, so I don’t think the declining number of DIY-ers will have a huge impact.”
Offering installation services would be “one of the next big challenges” for the DIY industry, he concluded.
