Optimism despite ­certain threats

The total DIY market in Poland (i.e. sales of products needed to build, renovate or decorate a home, garden products, and tools, both to individuals and to institutional clients) grew by 5.3 per cent to reach PLN 51.9 bn in 2016. These figures are published in a current study called "DIY market in Poland 2017. Market analysis and development forecasts 2017-2022", by the market research company PMR, who are experts on Eastern Europe. 
The DIY retail market (i.e. sales to individuals and to construction and renovation companies acting on their behalf) represented 57 per cent of the total DIY market in 2016. With a strong housing market, rising household expenditures on home maintenance, and more households planning to renovate their homes, the outlook for the market is seen as very positive. Even under a pessimistic scenario, the value of DIY retail in Poland will not decline in the period 2017 to 2022, according to the author of the study, Bartosz Bolecki.
There are certain threats on the horizon though, and the biggest of those is the prospect of a ban on Sunday trading. Other threats include the expiry of the popular Mieszkanie dla Mlodych scheme for first home buyers in 2018; and the risk of the government returning to its plan to impose a tax on retail sales.

The biggest player on the Polish DIY market is the British Kingfisher group, which owns the Castorama and Brico Depot chains. Kingfisher had a twelve per cent share of the total DIY market in Poland in 2016. Furthermore, a new PMR survey concludes that Castorama is also the most recognised DIY chain in Poland - 89 per cent of Poles know the brand. The French chains Leroy Merlin and Bricomarché are the second and third largest player by market share respectively, with Obi of Germany and Polish PSB-Mrówka (a unit of the Polskie Sklady Budowlane group) completing the top five.
Interestingly, the list of top ten players includes two grocery stores - the French chain Auchan and the British chain Tesco. Although the large-format grocery stores carry only limited ranges of DIY products, the sheer scale of their business (in terms of the number of stores, customers, total sales turnover) means they are able to generate fairly high amounts of revenue from the sale of DIY products.
The same…