Jim Copeland, CEO of the Irish Hardware & Building Materials Association, shares his view on opportunities for the industry.

The first Global DIY Summit, held in Brussels this June, brought together 400 senior executives from leading Do-It-Yourself companies in over 30 countries, to explore the key challenges facing the industry.

Jim Copeland, CEO of the Irish Hardware & Building Materials Association (IHBMA), participant and speaker at the summit, explains.

• There is a strong focus on sustainability, starting with products assortments, but some companies are also looking at the sustainable supply chain - like Lowe’s in the US who is measuring the environmental footprint ofits outlets.
• Competition from non-DIY mass retailers is driving the need for efficiency and effective retail tactics, which is propelling home improvement retailers into new productcategories
• With the influence of social media, the consumer is becoming more knowledgeable than even the salesman!

And cross-channel research and buying means the need for an integrated online/offline approach. “Key to success is clean data”, noted Mr. Copeland. “Data is the new oil”. As business becomes digital, the DIY industry is turning to the tools already adopted by the Fast Moving
Consumer Goods industry, such as EDI for automated data exchange and data-pools for better data management.

For example, the Irish Hardware & Building Materials Association (IHBMA) collaborated with GS1 Ireland and key Irish DIY retailers and manufacturers to develop single electronic invoice, order and despatch messages. “We’re aiming at taking 80% of paper out of the system.” To allow for international trade, they wanted a global solution and used GS1 standards. A pilot provided the proof of concept for enabling this
paperless supply chain. “This opened our eyes on further opportunities based on GS1 standards, like barcodes, data pools, maybe even RFID”, concluded Mr. Copeland.

Many GS1 Member Organizations are active in collaborating with the DIY sector. More information download the GS1 in Europe DIY brochure (download).