New ranking in Romania

The DIY sector in Romania has been supported by a better performance of the country's economy, which in turn has increased the purchasing power of the Romanians. Strong DIY chains characterize the market, as the six largest retailers - Dedeman, Arabesque, Leroy Merlin, Brico Depot, Hornbach and Praktiker - account for about 50 per cent of the country's total market value. The rest of the DIY market is composed of traditional retail (independent stores, warehouses etc), online retailers and unspecialized retailers with DIY categories.
Romanian companies have dominated the domestic DIY retail business for quite a long time: Dedeman, Arabesque and Ambient. However, Dedeman detached itself and became the undisputed market leader and Arabesque was able to keep up and took second place until 2016. Ambient lost the fight and officially declared insolvency in 2015 and the company has been in continuous decline ever since.Despite market recovery from the difficult period between 2010 and 2014 and the growth of construction and renovation volume, the Romanian DIY market is still small in value and is estimated between € 4.8 and € 5 bn.
However, the growth from 2016 makes the industry more than optimistic. The total modern DIY retail made a turnover of € 2.3 bn in 2016, up by almost 30 per cent over the previous year (€ 1.8 bn).
Dedeman remains the strongest DIY retailer in Romania with a growth of 20 per cent in 2016, with sales of about € 1.2 bn. The company represents about a half of the total DIY modern retail.
Dedeman currently has 48 stores with a sales area of between 7 000 and 18 000 m² and more than 45 000 SKUs available. It opened three stores in 2016.The Romanian company Arabesque was the second player on the market until 2016, when Leroy Merlin of the French Groupe Adeo took over this ranking. Arabesque, the biggest distributor of building materials and finishes, owns 18 warehouses in Romania and two retail units. The company registered a small sales growth in 2016 with 1.32 per cent, reaching a total turnover of over € 350 mio.
In 2015, Arabesque started opening retail units under the brands Arabesque Retail, in Pitesti city and Mathaus, in Iasi city, in 2016. The Arabesque owner also owns the Mr Bricolage franchise in Romania, a network that has three stores, two of which were rebranded. Arabesque is one of the few Romanian companies that has expanded its business across borders, developing DIY stores in the Ukraine, Bulgaria and Moldova.
Unexpectedly, Leroy…