Do-it-yourself (DIY) retailing: ever-heftier players in a buoyant market

Do-it-yourself (DIY) is one of the most buoyant sectors of the French retail trade, nearly doubling sales between 1996 and 2006. This growth is benefiting large DIY outlets far more than the smaller traditional hardware stores. The sector's renewal has caused the disappearance of modest-sized businesses and their replacement by larger players. The average workforce size has nearly doubled. In ten years, mass retailers have expanded their share of the DIY market by 15 points. Almost all their sales are generated by retail chains. In 2006, the three largest chains accounted for 43% of total DIY sales.