3rd Global DIY Summit in London

DIY is dead, long live DIY! This could well have been the motto for this year's Global DIY Summit in London, organised by international trade organisations EDRA and fediyma.The two-day get-together of the great and the good in the industry provided an authoritative statement on the current state of repair in the global home improvement sector.Some of the daunting challenges facing the trade were revealed at the very start of the show via an electronic questionnaire. One in three suppliers and one in five retailers believe that the growth of online home delivery could force 70 to 80 per cent of all physical store space to close by 2025. A surprisingly high number of attendees also estimate that robots could replace 10 to 20 per cent of all shop staff by then.Meanwhile, younger consumers are becoming less interested and capable in DIY, which favours the "Do-It-For-Me" segment. This is good news for professionals and their wholesale customers, but it means that fewer tills will ring at the DIY store.Here even Sergio Giroldi, CEO of German market leader Obi, admits: "Big box stores are too far away from today's customers." So why were the speakers so bullish?