Around the world, success starts with stores
LAS VEGAS—John Herbert, the general secretary of the European DIY Retail Association and managing director of the Global Home Improvement Network has a message home improvement retailers in the United States.
“Stationary stores are still the key [to retail success],” he told the audience of industry executives during a Crystal Vision Award Breakfast held during KBIS in Las Vegas. But these physical must not simply rest on their laurels, but rather “must continue to improve the excitement level for customers going into the store.”
That advice comes from the 2022 Global DIY-Lifetime Achievement Award winner and a former Home Depot executive who guided the Home Depot Expo Design Center on the West Coast at the turn of the century.
Herbert, 81, told the audience of industry leaders at the Crystal Vision breakfast that he has personally visited every significant home improvement retail chain around the globe. And that what he sees is a “huge and exciting future for home improvement retailing throughout the world.”
He also pointed to some regional sales figures of the global industry.
Based on 2021 sales, home centers in the United States, led by the combined might of Home Depot and Lowe’s, generated $460 billion in sales. Menards added to that total, with an estimated $10.3 billion.
That compares to $221 billion amassed by home centers in Europe, and $11.7 billion by the home center industry in Latin America.
Around the world, an issue shared by home center and DIY retailers is the need to protect the world’s fragile environment for future generations of DIYers, he said.
“We have only one planet,” Herbert said. “We’ve got to really concentrate on sustainability, because we believe it is very important that our children, our grandchildren and future generations will be able to live as we have.”
The EDRA/GHIN, which exists to support the industry and encourage communication and allow its major global players to learn from each other, continues its sustainability mission on its web site.
Among the messages: “As an industry, we are in a most unique position to tackle sustainability on three fronts: in our own business, together with our suppliers, and also in the lives of our customers.”
Herbert’s “Global Home Improvement Update” remarks were part of a schedule at the Crystal Vision Awards event that recognized industry leaders who support the Storehouse of World Vision. The Storehouse program converts donated building materials into projects that fight poverty, strengthen communities and rebuild lives.
