There’s still space among the greenery

DIY with connected garden centre: that has been the standard in the German-speaking DIY trade for several decades. AFS, the subsidiary of Raiffeisen Ware Austria (RWA) which supervises the Lagerhaus stores in Austria as franchise headquarters, has turned this principle around. "We are a garden centre with DIY store," Thomas Marx, chief executive officer of AFS and division manager for DIY and garden stores/building materials at RWA, describes the starting position from which AFS has developed a new concept.
A new flagship store is implementing this concept. It is located in Korneuburg, a town in the affluent suburbs of Vienna. This is of significance, because the new concept also targets particularly those garden owners with a certain degree of purchasing power, while the original Lagerhaus idea is that of a local supplier for rural areas.
The 2 500 m² new building with 18 000 articles is divided into several themed worlds - which are described as shops in the shop - and has especially identified communication zones. For example, in the garden department the "edible garden" theme is taken up with product ranges such as beer brewing, schnapps distilling, beekeeping or preserving. A cooking area for demonstrations is designed to provide opportunities to communicate with the customer.
The entire garden and outdoor product range makes up more than 50 per cent of sales at the Lagerhaus stores (half of which through living green products). "This will become even more here, because we are even more diverse in the garden," predicts Marx.

Typical for the Lagerhaus stores is the animal department which is even more focussed here on livestock husbandry, hobby farming and horse riding.
The so-called shop of enjoyment, in which local farmers market their foods, completely sets itself apart from the DIY store concept. But DIY articles are, of course, also available in the garden centre with connected DIY store. Hardware, tools, paints, also building materials - it's all there, but essentially a basic range.
An important aspect of the new concept is the connection to the online shop. So in addition to a click & collect desk inside the store, there is a parcel collection point in front of the store.
But all things considered, the description which Thomas Marx has…