Western Europe’s Technical Consumer Goods Market improves slightly despite crisis

Results of GfK TEMAX® Western Europe for the fourth quarter of 2009

Nuremberg, March 2, 2010 – In the fourth quarter of 2009, consumers in Western Europe spent almost EUR 55 billion on technical consumer goods, which means an increase of 0.5% compared to the same quarter of 2008. After three quarters of continuous but alleviating decline in 2009, the fourth quarter shows pleasing growth despite the crisis and many markets become positive. For the fourth quarter some of the major markets in Western Europe like Germany, France and Italy even encountered around a 4.0% increase. Excluding currency effects, the UK market is also back on track. Also smaller markets, like Austria, Belgium and Sweden show slight growth. Nevertheless the full year 2009 suffered a decline of -5.1%. These findings are based on GfK TEMAX® Western Europe, an information service developed by GfK Retail and Technology.

The Publication of Q3 TEMAX for Western Europe concluded with the identification of first signs of recovery. As observed by GfK Retail and Technology, these expectations were partly met in Q4 by the retail industry, which in some markets enjoyed pleasing year-end sales.

The IT market experienced the most positive revenue development; closing the fourth quarter at +4.2% for Western Europe. Major Domestic Appliances also showed positive growth with +2.2%, followed by Small Domestic Appliances with +1.8%. With a fall of-0.9%, the Consumer Electronics market was slightly negative, however showed improved growth compared to Q3. A similar improvement regarding growth compared to Q3 was in the Telecommunications sector, with a -3.2% decline in Q4. The sectors Office Equipment & Consumables and Photo fell in between the above mentioned markets with a decline of -2.6% and 2.7% , respectively. Generally, the year 2009 has seen the markets take full advantage of the integration of electronics into contemporary lifestyles. more ››

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