Slovakia

There was a reshuffling of the cards in the Slovakian DIY market when Hornbach made its entry there. At the beginning of August 2004 the German company opened its first outlet in Slovakia. The DIY and garden store with a weighted overall retail area of 15 954 m² is located in Bratislava. It is the company’s biggest DIY store anywhere. This spring should see the completion of an outlet in Koschice, and another store is already being planned for Bratislava. The goal is to have five or six locations in Slovakia. No more outlets were added by either B+M Pega or Baumax, though the latter expects to inaugurate a new store at Poprad in 2005. As a result of Hornbach’s new opening, the combined retail area of the DIY chains in Slovakia had risen by 21 per cent to 89 600 m² at the end of 2004.