2011 has been a monumental year for Home Improvement retailing, with several casualties across the Home market- Focus DIY, Habitat, Homeform (Moben, Dolphin, & Kitchens Direct) and TJ Hughes all disappearing from our retail landscape in one form or another. The struggles faced by these companies are ultimately the result of weakening consumer demand fuelled from weak consumer confidence and increased competition from generalist retailing. Overall, GfK recorded the DIY sector as having shown a positive value performance of 2.6% across 2011. This was largely through price increases as demand remained weak. In addition, domestic appliances (small and major) both grew 4.9% and 1.7% respectively. Here, a more positive state than some industry sectors and certainly not such a bleak picture when compared to the double digit value declines of the CE market.
Rounding up 2011 we take a look in this edition at two aspects of the DIY market; specialist paints which are traditionally small project led, and power tools which cover the full gamut of small projects, to large scale construction projects. Across in the domestic appliance world we look at the performance of freestanding cooking and pyrolytic built in ovens which have both returned decent numbers. Also with an insight into the world of food preparation where kitchen machines, and in particular parts of the food preparation category, are increasing their importance to this market. Perhaps this is no surprise with the ever increasing popularity of food TV shows and increasing range of other food media, unlike the DIY sector where mainstream TV scheduling had removed DIY home improvement programming by the mid noughties.
Daniel Fearnley
Business Group Director
GfK Retail and Technology UK
Come along and listen to Daniel present at the Retail Tool Box on Tuesday, 7 Feb at 11am and 2.45pm.
Highlights from the DIY Sector:
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Especially strong results for specialist paint |
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After a period of decline, 2011 proved to be a very strong year for the specialist paint market, with 3.5% more sales by volume and an 11.5% increase in value terms. Major shifts within the brand mix offered at main DIY retailers fuelled competition within the market, helping to drive innovation across the market. Consumers have responded positively to these changes, with growing interest in part of the paint market which had become less fashionable in recent years. Taking into account the overall difficulties in the decorative sector, the strong growth in volume as well as value is particularly striking. more... |
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Rising prices grinding value growth out of power tools |
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A review of the Power Tools market in 2011 shows a marginal decline in volume sales of 1.1% in 2011 vs. 2010 and a value growth of 4.9%. As across many DIY categories, average pricing has been on the rise, contributing to the value growth despite the decline in demand, sanders, routers and stationary tools the most notable examples of this. Promotional activity around the middle of the year boosted the market in June, but since then some months have seen double digit declines in demand vs. the previous year. more... |
