Home and Garden in France

Home and Garden struggles to recover

Home and garden recorded a sluggish performance in 2018 as demand was negatively impacted by the ‘gilet jaunes’ social movement which swept France during the year. Other negative influences on sales were the declining housing, real estate and construction markets and the difficulties faced by leading retailers Kingfisher and Steinhoff.

Connectivity becomes more influential but many products remain niche

Connected home and garden products are increasingly being seen on retail shelves, with lighting one category in which connectivity is becoming especially important. However, many consumers remain sceptical about the potential benefits of connected products and are therefore reluctant to pay the higher prices that they invariably command.

Large retail chains continue to lead a highly fragmented market

Major retail chains Leroy Merlin, Castorama and Point P remain the leading names in Home and Garden, leading a highly fragmented competitive environment in which no single player comes close to breaking double figures in value share. However, Castorama continues to struggle in a difficult trading environment, dragged down by the travails of its parent company Kingfisher, while Leroy Merlin and Point P continued to outperform the market due to superior levels of service, registering particularly strong growth in wall covering, lighting, hardware and floor covering.

Specialists remains the preferred channel

Home and garden specialists remains by far the leading retail distribution channel for home and garden in France. Overall, home improvement and gardening stores remains ahead of homewares and home furnishing stores and this is because while many home improvement and gardening stores also sell fairly wide selections of homewares and home furnishings, it is uncommon for homewares and home furnishing stores to sell a wide selection of home improvement and gardening products.

Sluggish performance expected for home and garden

The forecast period is expected to see home and garden continue to register rather sluggish value growth in current terms, with value growth set to remain negative in constant 2018 terms. According to trade sources, demand in most of the industry’s important categories is already mature and it is becoming increasingly difficult to reinvigorate sales as consumers continue to take more time when deciding to renovate and/or refurbish their homes.

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