Focus Wickes set to create fitting service

Focus Wickes group is considering introducing a kitchen and bathroom fitting and conservatory construction service, following research into the DIY sector that showed consumers have a lack of confidence in specialist tradesmen.

It is also developing new products for the garden as a result of research, conducted on behalf of Focus Wickes by Verdict Research, which showed that consumers increasingly treat the garden as a room. The DIY retailing group also intends to examine opportunities created by changes in the make-up of households. These show a shift away from couples with children to multi-generational, single and double income households with no children. In the Sixties 38 per cent of households were made up of couples with children. This has now fallen to 23 per cent.

Wickes managing director Richard Bird says: “Consumers appear not to have much confidence in tradesmen. Perhaps we should be creating our own installation service.”

According to Verdict, Focus Wickes accounts for 13.8 per cent of sales in the UK’s &£12.2bn DIY market. It predicts the total DIY market will grow by 7.4 per cent between 2001 and 2005.