Guillermo Leal: In Spain, it's hard for us to define the size of the market. Roughly, we can speak of 90 large department stores, 250 medium-sized stores, 50 hard discount stores, 7 500 hardware stores, 1 500 builders merchants and 1 000 industrial suppliers. We should add to these figures the DIY sales by food retailers, online websites, bazaars and garden centres.
Do the Spanish love do-it-yourself? The men as well as the women?
When talking about women, I believe their gradual incorporation into the industry is important, not just as buyers, but even more importantly as decision makers for most home-related matters.
Nearly all over the world, the DIY industry laments that the younger generation is losing typical DIY skills. What about in Spain?
This new consumer is different: the new consumer enjoys travelling, in most cases, prefers sharing to buying, is a digital being... but the new consumer also enjoys the good life, that's for sure!
This new consumer opens our eyes to a whole new range of opportunities and possibilities, and also of changes which we, the retailers, must be ready to make. Who's going to do their home improvements and maintenance?
What is the most challenging task the Spanish home improvement industry has to tackle today - and in the future?
Digitalisation is perhaps the biggest…