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Germany: DIY stores under pressure: Lidl and Aldi attack industry in a targeted manner

Discount Retail Chains such as Lidl, Aldi or Action are increasingly attacking classic DIY stores with cheap DIY products and gaining market share.


Private labels such as Parkside in particular are becoming bestsellers and reach millions of customers directly during their weekly shopping.


DIY stores are responding with new own brands and service, but are hoping above all for impetus from renovations and the increase in building permits.


Arnold Schwarzenegger is full of admiration. "Wow, what power," the former bodybuilder, actor and politician praises a hobby do-it-yourselfer in sportswear who is currently handling the drill and setting up a weight room in his garage.


The fact that Schwarzenegger is referring to the tools of Lidl's own brand Parkside rather than the fitness of the young athlete becomes clear in the further course of the promotional video with even more examples of the discounter's DIY range. But Arnie is encouraging: "You can do it," is his message to the stork-legged pumper, as well as to all do-it-yourselfers and DIY fans.


Schwarzenegger has been the face of the brand since autumn 2023, currently additionally supported by Ralf Moeller. "We want to draw attention and inspire people to take their DIY projects into their own hands," says Lidl. "The two brand ambassadors embody strength, perseverance and the belief that you can achieve great things with hard work."

 

Lidl specifically attacks the DIY industry

In fact, this sentence can also be applied to the brand. What started in the 1990s as a cheap private label of the Schwarz Group for Lidl and Kaufland is now the best-selling DIY offer in all of Europe, as a study by Euromonitor shows. The assortment ranges from power tools to garden tools and painting supplies to lawn mowers, chainsaws and high-pressure cleaners.


"There is poaching in our assortments," confirms Peter Wüst, the chief executive of the German DIY Retail Association (BHB), at the presentation of the annual balance sheet of the DIY industry. And this poaching is increasingly successful.


Lidl is not alone in this. Aldi or discounters such as Action and Thomas Philips have also been increasingly pushing into the DIY sector with promotional goods for some time now and are gaining sales and market share with seasonal items. This is shown by the current industry figures. According to this, the DIY stores are already in the red for the third year in a row. In 2025, revenues in this country fell by 1.6 percent to 20.6 billion euros, reports the BHB. In segments such as tools or garden tools, the minus is even around four percent each.


However, most of the other levels in the so-called "retail-relevant DIY market", which industry analyst Klaus-Peter Teipel estimates at around 131.5 billion euros, have also lost. Only one of six forms of distribution is in the plus: the "Other without crafts" sector.

And that's exactly where supermarkets and discounters are sorted, as BHB boss Wüst describes. Here, there was a 1.3 percent increase in sales against the trend.





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