German garden furmiture market

The market volume for garden and balcony furniture rose during this period by 6.5 per cent overall to approx. 869 mio euro (DM 1.7 bn), according to a current study produced by BBE Management Consultancy of Cologne. There were clear shifts within the individual product categories, with cane garden and balcony furnishings and wooden furniture numbering among the winners. Plastic furniture has in comparison clearly fallen out of favour with consumers: its share of the overall market dropped by almost six percentage points. According to the study, DIY superstores have been leaders in the distribution of garden and balcony furniture since the early nineties. In 1999 they sold furnishings for the garden or balcony to the value of approx. 256 mio euro (DM 500 mio), amounting to a market share of 22.1 per cent. This corresponds to a sales expansion of nearly one fifth compared with the beginning of the previous decade. The BBE market researchers are forecasting growth of 7.4 per cent to around 920 mio euro (DM 1.8 bn) by 2004. The share taken by garden centres above all should see a clear rise. Here the considerable expansion of floorspace over recent years is having a positive effect. The DIY superstores will achieve only slight increases. The study sees channels of distribution such as department stores and hypermarkets as the clear losers over the next few years.