Wöschnau Do It: total makeover and extension

It is the Do It group’s first DIY store. It was set up in 1982 by Richner, a builders’ merchant established in Aarau for the last 200 years. After a six-month period of renovation, during which business continued as usual, the store now has a new livery, an enlarged floorspace and a wider range of products. The interior retail area has been expanded to 2 180 m2. A heated greenhouse (350 m2) has been integrated into the outdoor sales area and the yard is glassed over. Now affiliated to the garden centre is the drive-in, which has long proved its value and has now been reorganised on a area of 600 m2. Customers can drive up in their cars and load them with heavy goods from the building materials area before paying at the checkout by the exit.
The Wöschnau Do It now has a retail area of 3 810 m2.
The interior of the new Do It building and garden centre makes a bright, friendly impression. A generously designed and covered main entrance leads into the light entry zone, which contains a small corner cafe.
The complete range now includes over 70 000 items in the categories of building materials, timber, sanitary installations, tiles, paint, electrics, tools, furniture and gardening with handicrafts as a new addition. The handicraft centre is one of the biggest departments in the store with over 20 000 items. Store manager Pascal Gysi is convinced that “Everyone will be successful in creative self-expression with our professional advisory service and the workshops and courses that are scheduled.”
The enlarged garden centre (1 030 m2) now accounts for about one third of the total retail area. The new heated greenhouse makes it possible to present a range of flowers, plants, shrubs, gardening tools and accessories right through the year. Following the makeover the garden centre is equipped for doing business all year round. The plants are watered with rainwater collected in large tanks.
Do It offers plants and garden accessories all year round in the new greenhouse.
Advice and free services are two of Do It’s strong points. All 26 of the store employees, both male and female, have absolved a technical training of some kind, whether as gardener, electrician or handicraft teacher.
Free cutting of timber to order, a computer program for customised doors and windows, a paint mixer and free seminars on different topics involving all aspects of both home and garden round off the palette of services available to customers. The store is now open throughout the day so that the working population can go shopping over the lunch break.
The store’s target group covers ambitious and creative workmen of all ages in the areas of building, gardening and DIY. In particular home owners or tenants, but also schools, property management firms, workshops, small tradesmen, farmers and the catering trade number among the 200 000 customers who each year obtain all their requisites at the Wöschnau Do It.
There are currently seven Do It stores in Switzerland: at Abtwil near St Gallen, Biasca, Cadenazzo, Chur, Heimberg, Schenkon and Wöschnau. “We are in the process of expanding our network constantly, though only after due consideration, either through additional franchisees or through other types of partnership,” explains Richard Wachter, director of Richner AG. In addition to the Wöschnau location Richner AG also operates the Do It in Schenkon. It should soon be possible to purchase a selected range of products on the internet, from July at the very latest.