No more Lafiora garden centres

The German DIY store operator Hornbach has decided not to develop its concept of independent speciality garden centres under the Lafiora logo further. The four existing locations in Germany will be incorporated into Hornbach Baumarkt AG, which is acquiring the shares in Lafiora Hornbach Florapark GmbH from Hornbach Holding AG for this purpose. However, the stores will continue to be run as standalone garden centres. According to the company, the Lafiora outlets have not achieved the profitability of the combined DIY and garden stores in the group. The reason given for Hornbach’s decision is that the general trend in the sector in Germany is turning against garden centres as independent entities; customers are concentrating more on garden design projects that are served more competently by combined DIY stores and garden centres. On the other hand, the tendency is for spending on goods in the “ambience” segment to be deferred.