DIY & BIY is set to become the next SUPER BOOM Sector

DIY store builds up decoration business
By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-23 06:20


SHENZHEN: B&Q, one of the world's leading home improvement retailers, is planning to expand its business in China by launching home decoration outlets selling "softer" products.

The company, a subsidiary of the UK-based Kingfisher Group, will open its first two such decoration outlets in Shenzhen and Beijing, sources with the company said.

Wei Zhe, the president of B&Q China, said the firm was shifting its presence from hardware building materials to the decoration sector.

According to Wei, the Shenzhen outlet will open in the coastal city's Shekou District today, with the Beijing branch set to begin trading on Sunday.

B&Q will open more outlets specializing in the home decoration business from next year, Wei said.

"The home decoration business is a new profit growth engine for B&Q's future development in China," he told China Daily.

The development follows a fall in house prices this year due to the Chinese Government's measures to cool down the over-heated real estate sector, Wei said. "It has affected the building materials business."

Chinese consumers are demanding more fashionable soft decoration products, something that has given the company confidence to begin this new business.

According to Wei, the new outlets will sell products such as sofas, beds, curtains and others items.

As part of efforts to provide more specific products, B&Q will co-operate with its suppliers in the design of softer decoration goods.

"We have developed a team consisting of more than 300 designers, who will work with our suppliers," said Mark Ladham, managing retail director of B&Q China.

Ladham regarded the firm's design strength as a core advantage for the firm. "B&Q is not simply collecting or selecting products from our suppliers, but wants to work with them to make our goods distinctive," he told China Daily.

B&Q, which began business in the Chinese coastal city of Shanghai in 1999, has so far set up 45 outlets in major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.


(China Daily 12/23/2005 page11)