Kingfisher is the largest home improvement retailer in Europe and the third largest in the world. Kingfisher is a pure DIY business and is a market leader in the UK with B&Q (figure 6).

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Introduction

Kingfisher is the largest home improvement retailer in Europe and the third largest in the world. Kingfisher is a pure DIY business and is a market leader in the UK with B&Q (figure 6). The retail industry has grown over the past 10 years, as total growth since 1995 is 38% at current prices. DIY retailers accounts for under 4% of total retail sales, which will increase as consumers interests with their homes and owner-occupation continues to absorb growing amounts of disposable income. The DIY sector is dominated by three players who account for 90% of the sales; B&Q, Focus and Homebase.

Table 1

Table 1 shows a number of factors of why the industry has benefited in the last five years

Buoyant housing market (figure1)

Increasing consumer debt

Greater interest in the home which has been influenced by DIY/makeover programmes and home interest magazines (figure 2)

The development of warehouse stores (superseded super centres) by B&Q has helped Kingfisher make DIY more accessible and available to consumers worldwide

Demand has increased by manufacturers developing products for the untrained DIY man

Wide spread use of the internet has encouraged