Italy's DIY stores grew by 3.5 per cent in the first quarter

DIY stores in Italy increased their sales in the first quarter by 3.5 per cent compared with the same period in the previous year, turning over EUR 1.25 bn. The highest growth rate, 17 per cent, was achieved by the building materials category; the miscellaneous goods category grew just as strongly. These figures were cited by Ivano Garavaglia, head of retail at GfK Italy, at a conference during the International Hardware Fair Italy in Bergamo.

The hardware trade experienced stronger growth than the DIY stores, however. GfK puts its growth at 6.4 per cent. Because the speciality trade has the larger market share with quarterly sales of EUR 3.03 bn, the entire home improvement trade sector achieved an increase of 5.6 per cent in the first quarter.

A comparison of the quarterly figures for 2023 with the corresponding values from 2019 nevertheless shows that the DIY sales channel displays the higher growth. its sales in the first three months of 2023 were 20.7 per cent higher than three years ago, while the figure for specialist retailers was 15.0 per cent.