About the market:

While all retail sales and non-food retail sales grew by 14.5% and 15.4% respectively between 2000 and 2004, the DIY specialists turned in a mere 2.2% growth. However anecdotal evidence suggests that DIY superstores are performing quite well in the context of the retail industry as a whole. But we suspect that the smaller hardware and DIY stores have struggled to keep pace with the DIY superstores, and have also been hit by the new breed of hypermarkets, furniture stores and other household goods retailers that have moved into the Italian market in recent years.

However the enduring presence of these small specialist outlets means that, like Spain and Portugal, the Italian DIY sector remains highly fragmented. The independents account for the lion’s share of sector sales and an even bigger proportion of store numbers.