Reliability in volatile times

"We have never had so many double-digit growth rates to report in the Statistics Home Improvement Retail Europe than in this edition." This sentence stands at the start of the current edition of the statistical standard work which brings the international home improvement industry in Europe up to date once a year: which trading group has how many locations and where?
In the edition which has just been released, another question comes to the fore: what effects has the global Covid-19 pandemic had?
After all, new openings were mostly thwarted. But there was a lot of movement in the sales rankings. At the same time, the double-digit growth rates mentioned at the start are only one side of the coin. On the other side there are the restrictions which the pandemic brought with it. Volatile times therefore - "this is when market data in a stable quality from a reliable source is all the more important," the editorial team at Statistics points out.
In concrete terms, the situation is that the top 20 DIY retailers in Europe have cleanly doubled the growth rates of their totalled sales in the year 2020: a plus of 8.6 per cent has been established by the research team at the German Dähne Verlag publishing house who produces the work.
The French Adeo group remains at first place by a long way, however with below-average growth. Much stronger, namely at 7.2 per cent - calculated in local currency - is the British Kingfisher group.
Consistently positive change rates, and in double-digit figures in half of cases, have been established by the research team for the top 20 at a global level. Incidentally, with a plus of 24.4 per cent, the industry second, Lowe's, has grown somewhat more strongly than the number one, Home Depot, which rose by almost 20 per cent.

As in previous years, Statistics Home Improvement Retail Europe again provides information on the development in the garden market (enlarged by some pages) and e-commerce. The data situation on the activities of DIY stores in the online trade continues to be unclear, the editorial team notes. The compiled facts and figures should help to retain an overview.
And there is also a small growth to report compared to the previous editions: Cyprus has been added as a further country for which there is…