About the market:

Mintel estimates that the Spanish DIY market was worth €14.7 billion including sales tax in 2004. The market has broadly maintained its share of all retail sales over the last five years. Various factors have helped to drive demand in recent years, including rising levels of home ownership, more consumers gradually undertaking DIY activities, and higher average spend per head.

DIY and hardware specialists (ferreterias) capture the largest share of DIY related spending, taking over half the market sales. But the specialists sector remains highly fragmented because of the preponderance of smaller, independent shops located in town and city centres. Other channels of note include builders’ merchants, hypermarkets and drugstores. The department store chain El Corte Inglés has recently said that it wants to develop its offer in the growing DIY market. Few retailers have a better knowledge of local consumers and this is surely a good sign that the DIY market in Spain is poised for further growth.

Indeed, with the top five players capturing just 13.4% of sector sales, the opportunities for the more ambitious players to expand are quite significant. In recent times, buying groups and co-operatives have emerged to protect and co-ordinate the interests of independents, but in general there is a trend towards further concentration of supply as the multiples gradually increase their share.