Germany's DIY industry ended 2023 with sales down 3.1%. Sales totaled 21.24 billion euros. Sales at German home improvement stores fell by 3.4% in real terms. These figures were announced today at industry association BHB's annual press conference at the International Hardware Fair in Cologne.
“The boom in DIY in 2020 brought forward demand by at least two years,” said Franz Peter Tepas, spokesperson for the BHB board and member of the Obi board. The situation now appears to be “normalizing to some extent.” The average annual growth rate from 2020 to 2023 was 2.2%. From 2017 to 2019, it was 2.3%.
Tepas is very confident about 2024, stressing that “as an industry, we see the glass as half full, not half empty.” My mood is rising again. He felt the signs in the first few months of this year. For example, in February, the industry achieved sales that were approximately 6 percent higher than in the same month last year.
German consumers became very cautious in 2023 when it came to investments and seasonal products. For example, tiles fell by 11.0%. The sector recorded the highest growth in horticultural chemicals/soil/seeds, increasing by 8.8%. However, the vital horticulture business was hit hard by bad weather in the spring of 2023.
2023 for the entire DACH region was similar to Germany. Austrian home improvement stores had sales of 3.07 billion euros, down 3.2% year-on-year and 3.2% in real terms. In Switzerland, 2022 was still a better year due to the impact of the new coronavirus, but sales in 2023 decreased by 4.9% to CHF 3.53 billion.