Building Material Dealers
Companies in this industry are primarily engaged in retail sales of new building materials and supplies. Major companies include Home Depot, Lowe's, and Menards (all based in the US), as well as Beijing Easyhome Investment Holdings Group and Red Star Macalline (both based in China), Home Improvement Hirose (Japan), Kingfisher (UK), Bauhaus and Tengelmann-owned OBI (both based in Germany). Some independently owned stores belong to wholesale cooperatives, such as Ace Hardware and True Value Company in the US, that buy materials in bulk and resell them to members.
The do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvement retailing market is expected to grow by $186.3 billion during between 2022 and 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of over 4% during the forecast period, according to Technavio.
The US building materials dealer industry includes about 57,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual sales of about $304 billion. The industry includes home centers and hardware stores and paint and wallpaper stores, which are covered in separate industry profiles, as well as specialized building material retailers such as electrical supply and plumbing supply stores.
Competitive Landscape
Demand is driven mainly by residential real estate construction and renovation. The profitability of individual companies depends on merchandising and customer service. Large companies enjoy economies of scale in purchasing and have the ability to offer more products. Small companies can compete effectively by catering to contractors, by offering specialty products and services, and by serving areas unattractive to larger companies because of limited customer concentration. While store location continues to be a key competitive factor, digitization and the ease of online shopping make omnichannel capabilities increasingly important to success. The US industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 65% of industry revenue.
Products, Operations & Technology
Major products are hardware and hand tools (more than 50% of revenue), plumbing and electrical supplies (about 20%), paint and sundries (10%), as well
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Sales & Marketing
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Finance & Regulation
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Regional & International Issues
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Human Resources
Also includes the following chapters:
Quarterly Industry Update
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Industry Indicators
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Business Challenges
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Trends and Opportunities
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Call Preparation Questions
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Financial Information
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Industry Forecast
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Industry Websites
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Glossary of Acronyms