Incentive to invest

Tor Ivar Riise: This market is worth EUR 8.2 bn. Including holiday homes, cabins etc., it rises to EUR 9.3 bn. according to Prognosesenteret.

The turnover through builders' merchant chains and DIY chains is EUR 5 bn according to Virke (enterprise federation of Norway). This is 85 to 90 per cent of the total retail market. 59 per cent of the sales go to professionals, 41 per cent to the private market and to DIY. Most chains have a combination of professional and DIY orientation. With 5.3 million inhabitants in 323 000 km² and the geography and topography, the local markets, apart from in three or four major cities, are not big enough to specialise in one customer group. The only chain focusing solely on DIY and consumer customers is Coop.

Web sales to end users are very small in Norway, probably around one per cent. In the B2B sector, the commercial information flow is now electronic (EDI) to a large degree, and there is a common product database (NOBB) which is used by all suppliers and chains. Without "NOBBed" products it is hardly possible to sell any product through any of the chains in Norway.

The garden market is not defined as part of the building materials or DIY market. Only Bauhaus, which has two outlets and one per cent market share, has garden departments.

The private refurbishment market in Norway is the biggest in Europe per capita. Per-capita spending is EUR 1 550 per year, per household EUR 3 200. As 84 per cent of all Norwegians own their own dwelling, there is a constant incentive to invest in your home to maintain or increase its value.

What about the role of female customers?
Despite Norway being a country with high degree of equality between the sexes in terms of workforce participation, salaries and in many other respects, it is still a fact that women are the most important influencers when it comes to initiating and decision making in the DIY market. As for DIY jobs execution, the men dominate, but DIY is not as common as it used to be previously. The traditional delivery of basic building craftsmanship from father to son has diminished, and affluence…