GfK Report on future of Russian DIY retailing

The Russian DIY retail sector has made great strides in the last few years. The Moscow ring road is clear visual evidence of the growth of many Western European retailers' activities especially in DIY apart from other sectors. Domestic operators also are active although not quite on the same scale. The retail market size for DIY now approaches €20 billion, equivalent in size to the scale in say Italy or UK.
 
There are some 144 million Russians with a per capita spend running at nearly 40% of EU country averages. So retailers such as Obi, Leroy Merlin, Castorama and K Rauta have built many stores already in the main urban areas of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. The domestic street markets which once dominated the DIY scene are now in retreat as the benefits of large scale warehouse type stores are obvious to the consumer. Some domestic chains have evolved and their growth is tracked in the Report. SCM Trest for example in the Urals region have built Home Depot type stores in several cities including Ekaterinburg.
 
The new GfK Report analyses the structure of the market and the main retailer sales volumes. It also addresses the issues of high levels of imports, logistics across 4,000 kilometres, the impact of the current recession, and prospects for growth to 2012. Political and social stability remains a risk, but EU retailers remain confident about long term growth prospects.
 
GfK Retail and Technology will be planning its next steps to bring its retail panel services to Russia. The Report was written by Jim Lowe of JL consultants on behalf of GfK Retail and Technology and is available through GfK's offices in Russia (Alexander Yakovlev) and GfK headquarters (Markus Wittmann).