Czechia

There was no evidence of any great expansionary activity in Czechia last year. Only one DIY store was added to the total, the 7 757 m² Obi outlet that opened at Hodonin in December. Globus has subjected its outlets to a reassessment and is now listing one large-format DIY department located in a hypermarket as a DIY store. As a result of this the company reported seven DIY stores instead of six at the end of 2004, and four rather than five large-format DIY departments (3 460 m² to 5 562 m²) in its hypermarkets. However, this reassessment had no further effect on the total number of outlets or the overall retail area. And so things were almost at a standstill in terms of expansion in 2004, but new openings are expected from Baumax this year (Tabor and Znaim).