Ten new DIY stores should open in the Czech Republic in 2012 as operators venture into smaller cities in their push for regional expansion. OBI is looking for potential in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants to add to their chain of 33 stores. Mountfield, number one in the Czech market, plans to expand its network of 72 stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia by a further 10 percent. A majority of the total of 141 DIY stores are located in Prague, Central Bohemia and Ostrava.
“The capital and the adjacent region combined have the largest population (about 2.4 million people or 23 percent of the Czech Republic population) and register the highest number of the family houses and spending power in the Czech Republic,“ says Beatrice Mouton, Head of Retail Agency at Jones Lang LaSalle CEE. “Prague and Central Bohemia are followed by the City of Ostrava and the Moravia-Silesia Region (with 17 DIY stores and a market share of 12 percent) and the region of Ústí nad Labem (15 DIY stores with an 11 percent market-share).”
