About the market…

It is now four years since Mintel last published its European retail sales forecasts in a single volume. Back in 2001 we had just had the September 11th attacks and Europe looked as if it was turning down.

History has repeated itself because this report was written in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on London and in the meantime there was also a horrific attack on a train in Madrid. So what seemed like an alarming lurch into unknown territory four years ago now seems more familiar and we have learned to cope with it.

In fact, consumers have quickly shrugged off the shock of the terrorist attacks. It took a couple of months after the World Trade Centre attacks, but in London the attacks had seemingly no impact at all. One would have expected to see some loss of retail sales because of the disruption to central London on the day itself, but in fact that month – July 2005 – UK retail sales growth turned out to be remarkably strong.

About Mintel’s research…

Fusing together sales trends and the latest market analysis, Mintel's new report provides forecasts for the 27 leading economies in Europe, west of the Russian border. These are:

Austria/ Belgium/ Bulgaria/Czech Republic/ Denmark/Estonia/ Finland/France/Germany/ Greece/ Hungary/ Republic of Ireland/ Italy/ Latvia/ Lithuania/ Luxembourg/ The Netherlands/ Norway/ Poland/ Portugal/ Romania/ Slovak Republic/ Slovenia/ Spain/ Sweden/ Switzerland/ UK.

Our forecasting model translates a global and national economic forecast into a detailed analysis of retail sector performance. Use Mintel's research to:

Forecast performance across the major European retail markets and sectors

Discover which retail sectors are set to enjoy the highest growth rates

Find out which markets are emerging as major contenders in European retail and are ripe for investment

Monitor consumer spending forecast growth rates and GDP growth rates, 2004-10

Pin point market potential before your competitors

Intriguing findings include…

In France, the bigger the store the higher the sales density it generates, whereas in Germany the opposite is true.

Although sales in the footwear sector have fallen, there still appears to be strong potential for growth within fashion-led footwear

The large grocery chains have increasingly adjusted to challenging retail conditions, often adjusting their store sizes and non-food offerings.