Hubo is verkozen tot de Beste Winkelketen van België in de categorie bouwmarkten. Niet voor niets, als men weet dat Hubo er rotsvast van overtuigd is binnen drie jaar met 50% te zullen groeien. De doelstelling voor 2015 gaat nog een stap verder: Hubo als internationale groep een omzet laten bereiken van niets minder dan 1 miljard euro.

Vorige week brachten we u het eerste deel van het exclusieve interview met Erwin Van Osta, deze week kunt u smullen van het vervolg.

Afgelopen dinsdagavond heeft Focus DIY, de voormalige nummer vier in de Britse doe-het-zelfmarkt, de boeken neergelegd met een schuldenlast van ruim 250 miljoen euro.

Niet alleen is dit schokkend nieuws voor de betrokkenen, voor de kenners is het bijna niet te geloven. Het eens glorierijke Focus werd in 1987 opgericht en prijkte in de periode tussen 2002 en 2005 zelfs op de tweede plaatse in het Britse DIY-landschap. Destijds was de keten eveneens de sterkste groeier in de UK met succesvolle overnames van Do It All (139 winkels, Great Mills (98 winkels) en vooral het bekende Wickes (131 winkels).

De faling betekent niet alleen dat 179 winkels de deuren sluiten, 3.920 medewerkers verliezen met het faillissement hun baan verliezen en duizenden toeleveranciers zijn een belangrijke klant kwijt.

Net zoals het ook het geval is voor Maxeda (Brico in België en Praxis-Formido in Nederland) werd Focus geleid door een private equity-groep, meer bepaald Cerberus-Apax-Duke Street Capital. Verschillende observatoren vragen zich dan ook hardop af of de hoge prestatiedruk van dergelijke venture capitalists de langetermijnvisie van retailers niet in het gedrag brengt en of de druk op de ketel niet te hoog werd.

Echter ook in de UK heeft de markt - en in het bijzonder het netto-resultaat en de marge – momenteel zwaar te lijden onder een beperkte koopkracht, gekoppeld aan een lage conjunctuur in de woningmarkt.

Vanzelfsprekend staat de organisatie nu te koop: Ernst & Young is gelast met de operatie. Is dit een kans voor Noord-Amerikaanse spelers om een gemakkelijke entree in Europa te maken?

- Thierry Coeman, internationale verslaggever DIY & Home Improvement, Retail Dynamics

Bauhof, the Estonian DIY market leader, is joining Bricoalliance. The new acquisition adds 12 Estonian and 5 Lithuanian stores to the Belgian DIY group.

Bricoalliance wants to enable its independent retailers to increase their local strength through joined purchases and shared know-how. General manager Jeroen Lauwers says he is “very pleased to welcome the Estonian market leader in the alliance”.

Bauhof has 500 employees in two Baltic countries and sells its over 40,000 DIY and gardening articles to both businesses and private clients. It claims to be unique in offering fast service, attractive store locations and competitive prices.

Dat een mobiel kassasysteem handig is, hebben de Apple Stores bewezen. Zonder vaste kassa heeft het winkelpersoneel de handen vrij. Dat betekent zoveel als: niet langer achter een toonbank gekluisterd blijven, persoonlijker contact met de klant en bijvoorbeeld zelfs helpen sjouwen met de aankopen. En waar komt dat beter van pas dan in de doe-het-zelfsector?

iPhones als kassa

Noord-Amerikaanse doe-het-zelfreus Lowe’s heeft daarom geïnvesteerd in 42.000 iPhones als betaalsysteem in zijn winkels. Elke winkel van de keten wordt uitgerust met 25 iPhones om af te rekenen en betalingen te verwerken, maar ook om klanten te informeren.

Zo zal het het winkelpersoneel via de iPhone verregaande informatie over de voorraad kunnen nakijken : met de mobiele ‘kassa’ kan men de voorraad in eigen en andere winkels checken, het aantal units opzoeken dat de afgelopen jaren over de toonbank ging en zelfs wanneer het product laatst verkocht werd. Via de ‘Area Lookup’-optie kan men bovendien zien hoe ver de klant moet rijden voor een volgende vestiging.

Webapplicatie voor klussers

Natuurlijk kan via de iPhone ook Lowe’s website worden bekeken. Die krijgt zelf een flinke upgrade, met name dankzij een eigen webapp. Met MyLowes online applicatie kunnen klanten al hun aankopen van klusmateriaal en huishoudtoestellen bijhouden, mét de bijhorende handleidingen en garanties. Ook kunnen ze er voor elke kamer in hun huis een profiel aanmaken. Wie nog klusprojecten plant, kan die via de app zelfs online bespreken met Lowe’s winkelbediendes.

Lowe’s wil met die technologische snufjes opboksen tegen rivaal Home Depot, die de DIY-keten recent in de VS onttroond heeft. Home Depot heeft zijn winkelmedewerkers uitgerust met mobiele toestellen van Motorola, en nu wil Lowe’s natuurlijk niet onderdoen. Al reageert Chief Information Officer Mike Brown ontkennend: "Vergeet de concurrentie, we proberen de psyche van de klant bij te benen."
 

Home Depot, leader in the American DIY market, is slowly leaving Lowe's behind. For the second time in three months, the latter had to issue a profit warning while the former announced to expect higher profits. 

Lowe's low quarterly results

Lowe's results were below expectations in the second quarter of 2011. Turnover rose 1.3% to 10.1 billion euro, but on a like-for-like basis, sales went down 0.3%. Profits were marginally lower than one year ago, dropping from 579.3 to 578 million euro. 

The group had to close seven unprofitable shops and lowered its expectations for the whole financial year (ending on 3 February) from 4% to only 2%. The only growth the chain really expects comes through the internet, highlighted by the opening of the Spanish language version of their website just this week. Another source of hope for Lowe's is the redecoration of its stores.

Home Depot growth causes Lowe's demise

Lowe's's downfall is caused largely by Home Depot's fierce competition, according to analysts. The latter was larger than Lowe's for the ninth quarter in a row, rising 4.3% worldwide. Total turnover was 14 billion euro, rising 4.3% worldwide. Net profits rose too, from 829 to 847 million euro. Unlike its main competitor, Home Depot confirms its expected growth of 2.5%.

Both Home Depot and Lowe's complain about the low consumer confidence in the US, causing many Americans to cancel their renovation plans. However, Home Depot did profit from spring sales and the damage caused by tornadoes. 

A visit to the 25,000 m² Italian garden centre Valle dei fiori in Mantua is an excellent lesson in “back to basics” for garden retail. The store is a horticultural concept that pleads for consistency and loyalty to the core business, focussing on living green, plants and flowers. CEO Marco Orlandelli gave an interesting seminar at the DIY&Homing fair in Kortrijk (Belgium) with this surprising message.

The Valle Dei Fiori has been the life's work of the Orlandelli family, whose latest three generations have made the “flower valley” a remarkable example for garden centres who are ever more tempted to extend their range with garden furniture, barbecues, swimming pools, clothing and Christmas decorations.

Back to basics

Gardening has a magnetic effect on customers and their purchasing habits, as shown by the trend to make homes – and indeed, sometimes offices – an oasis of serenity and self-development. An average growth of 11 to 14% makes gardening one of the most important sectors to generate revenue and margin for DIY businesses, so many announce important investment projects to expand their gardening department. This is of course bad news for the real garden centres, who find it increasingly difficult to make a competitive stand against the stores combining DIY and gardening.

Marco Orlandelli's solution is simple, but remarkable: go back to the roots and focus 100% on a garden centre's core business: selling plants and flowers, and a few tools and accessories like fertiliser. No more, no less. He sees three parameters to determine the professionalism of a garden centre: infrastructure, staff and management – three ways to distinguish specialised garden centres from DIY-garden centre combinations, as it were.

Most DIY stores do not possess the necessary professional infrastructure, according to Orlandelli. A greenhouse with suitable displays and watering systems is an absolute necessity for businesses selling fresh plants: customers punish any withered plants immediately. Orlandelli thinks this is the best way for garden centres to outshine DIY stores: invest in an outstanding infrastructure, with special attention for the illumination, ventilation, space and floor coating. The Italian is a fierce advocate of horizontal displays and rejects the traditional vertical displays that are so often used in Belgian garden centres.

The second parameter, professional staff, is more difficult to achieve: it is not only hard to find the best employees, but it is even harder to hire them, as the profit margins in the gardening area are very limited. Orlandelli recommends a close cooperation with horticultural schools to use internships for mutual benefit.  

Management is the last parameter. Coping with the strong seasonality in the gardening sector requires mastering, and coordinating, skills in purchasing, logistic and sales management.

Garden consultant

Retailers all over the world listen to, and make use of, Valle dei fiori's advice and its CEO Marco Orlandelli has become something like an international garden consultant, wielding the tools of range choice, store location and display techniques. Amongst other projects, Orlandelli and his team designed the gardening department of the world's largest DIY store in the world (Epicenter in Kiev, with 56,000 m²), dividing it in four worlds: the warm greenhouse, the cold greenhouse, the four season greenhouse and the shadow nursery.

An interesting design innovation is a software tool used in Valle dei fiori: when customers bring a picture of their garden, seconds after scanning it the system produces an image of the ideal garden, with tailored plants and flowers.

 
Orlandelli's exposé ends with two parts of wisdom that are almost as old as the stones of Mantua. The first: customers' buying habits in a garden centre are connected to the emotional impact of flowers and plants. The second: the answers to frequently asked questions are always found in the greenhouse, standing in the flower soil and talking to the customer. By sticking to these truths, Valle dei fiori has been able to expand nationwide in Italy and even to survive the recent recession with little or no harm.

-  Thierry Coeman, Retail Dynamics

The Dutch DIY-sector received some welcome news concerning the development of their turnover. For the second time this year a plus was noted compared to last year. This gives hope the meagre years for the industry are coming to an end.

Figures by research company GfK prove the DIY-market grew by 1.4 percent over the sixth period of the year. This follows a previous slight increase in period three. The success in period six can be mainly attributed to the big chains, who saw an increase of 3.3 percent.

Over the full year turnover is still down 1.5 percent compared to the same period in 2010.

The chain of DIY-stores Hornbach has been nominated for the Employer of the Year Award. The chain is among fifty businesses in The Netherlands to score a rating over 7.3 to be in the race for the award. The exact rating for Hornbach and it's place among the top fifty will be revealed in late September.

Hornbach entered the annual competition for the first time this year. The ranking is based on research by consultants Effectory, that included a survey among employees of participating companies. 'We see our nomination as a sign we are on the right path in human resources', Chris van den Akker of Hornbach commented. 'We have invested more time in the role HR playes as a business partner within the organisation and strengthening the options for development. We learn from the Effectory study that our employees appreciate our approach.'

Dutch DIY-chain Formido has signed a deal with popular singer Jannes. The artist from Emmen in the province of Drenthe will visit a number of Formido stores in the upcoming period to promote his new single and sign autographs.

Jannes is a singer in the popular Dutch language segment. Formido believe his type of music is the ideal background music for jobs around the house. They also aim to bring more entertainment to their stores.

Dutch garden centers have launched an earlier than usual sale. The retailers have lost faith in the summer weather and have started discounting about a month earlier than usual.

Garden sets, barbecues, sunshades and other summer articles suffer from heavy price-offs as retailers fear being stuck with unsold inventory.

July and August have been unusually wet and windy, dampening the spirit of consumers to invest in garden equipment. This comes as a disappointment to garden centers, that had a flying start into the summer with a sunny and warm spring.