Pressure on the market for doors

The market for interior doors in Germany experienced a steep decline in 2002, with sales amounting to a total of around 8.3 mio units. This corresponds to a drop of 13.5 per cent in comparison with the previous year. The market in Switzerland was also on a downward course, with a drop of 1.6 per cent. A slight amount of growth was achieved in Austria alone, where an increase of 0.7 per cent was recorded.Interior doors are predominantly manufactured out of wood. In Germany the share of the entire interior doors market claimed by the DIY stores already comes to more than 20 per cent, and the situation is similar in both Switzerland and Austria.Generally speaking, the tendency is towards standard products in the new-build sector and higher-quality products for renovation projects. Which is where there is a ray of hope for the manufacturers, since the market for interior doors is increasingly developing into a renovating market: Whereas in the year 2002 around 62.5 per cent of all interior doors were used for renovations in Germany, this figure is expected already to have risen to 66.4 per cent in 2003, according to management consultants Inter Connection of Vienna. What is more, they forecast a further rise to 68.9 per cent in the year 2004./documents/171120041018023804.pdfDominance of woodWood ranks high in the exterior doors segment, accounting for 41 per cent of all exterior doors sold in Germany in 2002. However, the market share of wooden doors is falling. Inter Connection reckons with a decline to around 38.1 per cent for the period under consideration up to 2005, since PVC doors are gaining market share due to their price advantage. This amounted to 10.9 per cent in 2002. Around 7.7 per cent of all exterior doors were manufactured from other materials (wood/aluminium, glass, steel, composite fibre materials, etc.) in the year 2002, and around 40.4 per cent from aluminium.Austria and SwitzerlandA 2.8 per cent decline in terms of volume to a market size of 73600 units emerged for the exterior doors market in Austria in 2003. According to Inter Connection, though, from 2004 there should be a definite growth spurt with a 5.5 per cent increase in volume terms to a total of 77600 units. The main reason for this rise is the increase in private housebuilding. In Austria in the year 2002 planning permission was granted for approximately 21720 homes in single-family or two-family houses, including extensions and conversions. This amounts to growth of 7.8 per…