Germany: Light + Building Autumn Edition 2022: Breaking New Ground.

As the pandemic situation continues to develop very dynamically, Messe Frankfurt is postponing the world's leading trade fair for light and building technology to autumn 2022. Now the new date has been set: Light + Building Autumn Edition will be held in Frankfurt am Main from 2 to 6 October 2022.

"We took the concerns of our partners very seriously and of course also weighed up the entrepreneurial opportunities and risks. As already announced in December, all options for a new date were under review. Fortunately, we managed to find an attractive autumn date and make it possible through internal rescheduling for Light + Building. This means that the prospect of a strong, international sector launch in Frankfurt in 2022 remains", explains Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Messe Frankfurt.

Light + Building is the most important international sector meeting for architects, industry, trade, commerce and planners. As an innovation forum and interdisciplinary marketplace, it is also a guarantor for business initiation, new contacts and knowledge transfer. With its holistic orientation, it focuses on current topics that contribute to sustainability issues.

www.light-building.messefrankfurt.com

USA: Unusually High Number of Home Improvement Projects Planned.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, 76 per cent of homeowners in the USA planned a home improvement project for this period. In the survey by Home Improvement Research Institute (Hiri), which has been carried out since 2012, this is a record value for the usually weaker fourth quarter.

"Many industry onlookers expected project growth to slow significantly or even reverse slightly as much of the US recovered from the pandemic in 2021. However, that has not been the case," the market researchers recorded. They say that possible reasons could be carry-over demand from 2020 as homeowners are now planning projects they never got around to or were previously delayed by contractor timelines, in addition a booming housing market as well as a high number of unfinished homes on the market.

The Hiri survey identified the field of maintenance and repair as top motivator for the project.

However they explain that there is a discrepancy between planned and completed DIY projects which is also a sign that that projects planned to be done professionally often either end up being done DIY or do not get done at all.
�

www.diyinternational.com

Germany: Frankfurt Consumer Goods Fairs in January and February 2022 to be Cancelled.

In view of the exponential worsening of the pandemic situation worldwide and the accompanying tightened travel and contact regulations, the consumer goods fairs Christmasworld, Paperworld, and Creativeworld are cancelled for January 2022 and Ambiente for mid-February 2022. However, the regionally-oriented trade fair Nordstil is scheduled to take place from 15 to 17 January 2022 in Hamburg.

The four events, consisting of Christmasworld with its focus on seasonal and festive decorations, Paperworld and Creativeworld with their product ranges for paper, office supplies, stationery and hobby, craft and artists' requisites and Ambiente with its cross-sector range of products for the table, kitchen and housewares, furnishing and decorative accessories, home furnishing concepts, gifts and fashion accessories, are the recognised leading trade fairs in their sectors and open the trading year in their respective segments.

"This decision was anything but easy for us. However, in agreement with large parts of the industries represented at the fairs, it is now our responsibility to take this difficult step. The last few months have been characterised by optimism, energy and ideas to give Christmasworld, Paperworld, Creativeworld, and Ambiente a successful new start after the compulsory break in 2021", says Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt.�

There are no plans to postpone the event. Braun explains: "Since the trend-oriented order cycles of the international consumer goods industry require an annual event at the beginning of the year, a shift to the second half of the year would not meet the needs of the exhibiting companies and visitors."
�

www.christmasworld.messefrankfurt.com

Japan:�DCM Holdings�Announces Policies for Promoting the SDGs.

In December, 2021, DCM Holdings announced eight priority issue groups for the promotion of�the SDGs.�

The first is "realization of comfortable and sustainable local lifestyles and housing," which�includes the evolution of lifestyle support and convenience services, the introduction of new�businesses that meet local needs, and the establishment of professional and DIY support stores�that specialize in hardware.

The second is to "promote a recycling economy and decarbonization�through products and stores," which includes the development and sale of products that�contribute to resource recycling and decarbonization, and the reduction of product packaging and�containers.�

In the home improvement industry in Japan, more and more companies have recently adopted�SDGs initiatives as their guiding principles, such as Cainz setting a goal of zero carbon, in�addition to DCM Holdings.

www.diamond-rm.net

UK: British Garden Centres make 30 Per Cent More.

Garden centres in Great Britain made around 30 per cent more from January to November 2021 than in the same period of the previous year.

This has been reported by the industry service Gardenforum with reference to the GCA Barometer of Trade.

All product groups grew, other than Christmas articles which only showed an increase of 1 per cent. The reason: logistic delays in deliveries from China. In contrast, plants grew strongly (plus 37 per cent), for example, as well as clothes (plus 40 per cent). Despite the lack of containers, sales in garden furniture also rose by 60 per cent.

This was also confirmed by the��Germany's only flowers and plants auction,�Veiling Rhein-Maas, who recorded product sales of almost 457 million euros in the 2021 financial year.�This is an increase of around 18 percent compared to the previous year, for which the company had reported sales of EUR 387 million.�

www.diyinternational.com
www.diyonline.de

Canada: Tony Cioffi Appointed President of Lowe's Canada.

Lowe's Canada has announced�the appointment of Tony Cioffi to the role of president of Lowe's Canada. This announcement follows the appointment of Tony Hurst to the position of senior vice president, pro, services and international for Lowe's. Hurst has been president of Lowe's Canada since January 2020. Tony Cioffi will report to him in his new role.

Tony Cioffi joined Lowe's Canada in 2016 as senior vice-president, finance and GFO (group financial officer). He then served as interim president before being nominated senior vice-president, stores, a position he held until his nomination as president. Before joining Lowe's Canada, Tony held top leadership roles at ADT Canada and Bell Helicopter Textron Canada and served as president and CEO of the Reader's Digest Association (Canada).

www.diyinternational.com

Germany: 40 Per cent of Online Shoppers Buy Used Products.

The digital association Bitkom has found that younger people in particular use classifieds portals and similar platforms to buy second-hand items. Sustainability is becoming more important in e-commerce, but there is still a lot of potential.

Used instead of new is still the trend.�40 percent now use portals such as “Vinted”, “Shpock” ​​and the eBay classifieds platform to buy second-hand items online.�A Bitkom study shows that women (44 per cent) shop much more actively than men (36 per cent) via these platforms.�More than half (52 per cent) of younger people between 16 and 29 years old buy used items online - 41 per cent of 30 to 49 year olds, 37 per cent of 50 to 59 year olds and a quarter of those over 60-year-old online shoppers.

When it comes to sustainability, online shoppers in Germany hold retailers responsible: 81 per cent see it as retailer's primary responsibility to make online retailing sustainable and climate-friendly.�92 per cent also believe that retailers should pack as many goods as possible in the same box.�86 per cent think that the boxes for the goods they have ordered are often much too big and�61 per cent would like the environmental impact of delivery traffic to be lower by using only electric vehicles to deliver parcels.

www.baumarktmanager.de

Global: World Bank Warns Global Economy Faces Grim Outlook.

The global economy faces a "grim outlook", World Bank president David Malpass has warned, as the aftershocks of the pandemic continue to weigh on growth - especially in poor countries.

His organisation's latest forecast predicts global growth will slow to 4.1% this year from 5.5% in 2021.

It attributed the slowdown to virus threats, government aid unwinding and an initial rebound in demand fading. But Mr Malpass said his greatest worry was widening global inequality.

"The big drag is the inequality that's built into the system," he told the BBC, noting that poorer countries were especially vulnerable to economic damage from efforts to fight inflation. "The outlook for the weaker countries is still to fall further and further behind. That causes insecurity."

Separately, the World Economic Forum (WEF) warned that divergent economic recoveries were making it harder to collaborate on global challenges such as climate change.

"Widening disparities within and between countries will not only make it more difficult to control Covid-19 and its variants, but will also risk stalling, if not reversing, joint action against shared threats that the world cannot afford to overlook," the WEF said in its annual global risks report.
�

www.bbc.com

Global: Ikea Raises Prices Worldwide by 9 per cent.

Ikea will raise its prices worldwide by around 9 per cent this year, according to parent company the Ingka Group. A press release to this effect indicates that various countries and merchandise groups will be affected by this to varying degrees.

The reason cited by the company is that it continues to be confronted by significant transport difficulties and shortages of raw materials. Further disruption is expected well into 2022. The highest cost increases due to transport and procurement costs are likely to be felt primarily in North America and Europe. "Unfortunately, now, for the first time since higher costs have begun to affect the global economy, we have to pass parts of those increased costs onto our customers," says Tolga �nc�, retail operations manager at Ikea Retail (Ingka Group), quoting the press release.

In the current fiscal year, Ikea intends to open 30 new "customer meeting points" in a variety of formats, including both traditional stores and planning studios and inner-city stores with same-day delivery.

www.diyinternational.com

Romania:�Dedeman Opens Store in C�mpulung Moldovenesc.�

Dedeman, national leader in the retail of construction materials and interior design in Romania, and with 100% Romanian capital, opened its most recent store on December 17.�With this opening, the Dedeman national network reaches 57 stores.

The total area of ​​the new store is over 10,500 sqm, of which 1,000 sqm are allocated to a green living.�

Dragoș PAVĂL, President of Dedeman, said "It is a great occasion for us to open another Dedeman store at the end of the year and at the same time to continue our investments in smaller cities, in order to be as close as possible to our customers.�Suceava County also hosted our first large store, opened in 2003, so we can only be proud to place a new store on the map of this county, in such a beautiful area of ​​our country."��

www.bricoretail.ro

Belgium: DIY, PRO & Garden Postponed to September 2022.

With a great range of exhibitors and a media campaign in the pipeline, DIY, PRO & Garden�were ready and enthusiastic to make the 35th anniversary edition of the show a success.

In practical terms, the event could be set up perfectly in a Corona-proof environment, with respect for the safety of exhibitors and visitors.

Unfortunately, the corona virus is still raging, and the Belgian government has issued new measures that are fully committed to limiting mutual contacts.�With the timings that are set today, it is estimated as unrealistic that by mid-January the restrictions will have been pushed back to the point where a full-fledged edition of DIY, Pro & Garden is possible.

In this context, the team behind DIY, Pro & Garden have therefore decided to postpone the show to September 5 & 6, 2022.�

www.diy-pro-garden.be