Hornbach-Baumarkt-AG Group

80 GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT Outlook
• We see the Buy-it-yourself (BIY) or Do-it-for-me market
segment as offering promising growth opportunities. This
segment includes the target group of those customers who
are on the lookout for solutions for their home improvement
projects and who wish to purchase the product ranges
themselves, but who then prefer to have the work undertaken
by a specialist. We also view this market segment
within the broader context of the ageing population in
Germany and other parts of Europe. Our tradesman service
aims to tap this potential.
• Since December 1, 2010, DIY enthusiasts and tradesmen
have also been able to shop at HORNBACH on the internet
(www.hornbach.de). The online shop represents a key strategic
addition to our stationary retail business. By taking
this step, we aim to targetedly exploit the considerable future
growth potential retail experts see in multichannel retailing.
Not only that, the online shop offers us the opportunity
of acquiring new customers outside our store
network catchment areas and arousing their interest in the
HORNBACH brand.
• The exploitation of opportunities is not limited to further
enhancing our concept or accessing market segments. We
are also focusing on optimizing our operating processes.
The processes involved in store organization, sales and the
links to procurement and logistics are subject to a process
of ongoing enhancement. This is expected to have a sustainable
positive impact on the Group’s sales and earnings
performance.
growing outside their existing sales regions and supplying
goods to additional countries. The fact that our retail format
is increasingly attracting professional customers to
HORNBACH has enabled us to acquire production specialists
who would otherwise only supply professional specialist
retailers. The flexible dovetailing of our suppliers with
the company’s logistics structures optimizes our value
chain and secures a significant competitive advantage for
us. The proximity of our suppliers to procurement structures
in the individual countries enables us to optimally
adapt our product selection to regional requirements in
those countries and to improve our margins due to benefits
of scale. We are tapping further earnings potential by increasingly
developing private labels in cooperation with
partners. These provide our customers with attractive
value for money, while at the same time differentiating us
from competitors.
• HORNBACH is committed to organic growth. We will continue
to track down opportunities in our expansion across
Europe in future as well. In the densely occupied German
DIY market, we are relying on selective growth in attractive
catchment areas. Here, we can draw on our structural advantages
and benefits of scale, especially our high surface
productivity together with the largest average store size in
the market. In our expansion, we will be focusing on countries
outside Germany. Due to their lower degree of market
saturation in the DIY megastore and garden center segment
compared with Germany, most other European regions
harbor above-average growth opportunities.
• The internationalization of group procurement provides us
with broad-based access to global procurement markets,
and enables us to forge strategic, long-term partnerships
with suppliers and industry. These partnerships benefit
both sides. We provide each supplier with the opportunity
to supply all of our stores as efficiently as possible. Suppliers
are able make large-scale logistical deliveries directly
to each location, or to supply the merchandise indirectly
via our central logistics hubs. We thus provide
regional manufacturers as well with the opportunity of