Bricorama Benelux on new course

The French DIY group Bricorama, which today has over 100 DIY store locations in Europe, came into existence 25 years ago when Jean-Claude Bourrelier opened his first DIY store in Paris. In 1983 came the opening of the first Batkor store. Bricorama numbered 95 DIY stores in 1997 following the acquisition of the 19 branches of Wickes in Belgium and 18 in the Netherlands.
Erik Haegeman (Bricorama Benelux)
The challenge consequent to this acquisition is principally a matter of straightening out both the financial situation of the former Wickes stores and their business policy. To a considerable extent leading these developments is Erik Haegeman, director of Bricorama Benelux, who has had many years of experience in the Belgian DIY trade. His ultimate goal is to make Bricorama the most rapidly growing and reasonably priced DIY group in the Benelux states.
Gradually Bricorama developed out of Wickes.
From Wickes came Bricorama
Erik Haegeman explained his policy; “First of all we expanded the product range from 5 000 to 15 000 items, and last year we changed the name of all the Benelux locations to “Bricorama”. Sales-wise the Belgian stores are considerably stronger than those nextdoor in the Netherlands, where sales per square metre come to only about 50 per cent. This stems from the higher proportion of home-owners in Belgium, so that more is spent on structural measures and renovations. That fits in very well with our plans, since “heavy users” are exactly the group targeted by Bricorama.
Naturally there are big regional differences where the tastes and preferences of our customers are concerned. Obvious here is an essential difference to previous times, when the British Wickes concept was identical in every country. Today Bricorama operates in France, Belgium and the Netherlands with individual concepts determined by those responsible in each country. That is Piet Burgwal in the Netherlands and James Amsens in Belgium.
We have introduced a customer card to enable us to become better acquainted with our customers’ preferences and to achieve one-to-one marketing at some future date. There are more than 15 000 of these cards in circulation already. We charge a fee for the card, which serves as a means of payment and offers other advantages as well.
What else have we done in order to get out of the red? Our cost structure has been adjusted to the actual size of the business. We have closed down our 13 000 m2 warehouse and reorganised both administration and EDP. The…