Even if tourism is slowly starting up again: Many holiday trips fall into the water because of the Corona crisis. Those who can afford it will instead prettify their own garden.
Geeste (dpa) - Why wander far when you can make yourself comfortable in your own four walls? Many people seem to make a virtue of the Corona crisis by using their unexpected free time or a canceled trip to beautify their own home.
Garden furniture, hammocks or even a pool - some manufacturers are experiencing increased demand right now. However, even in this branch, not every queue means rapid sales.
High demand for prefabricated pools
Riviera Pool in Geeste, Emsland, is one of the leading German manufacturers of prefabricated swimming pools. The family business with around 200 employees has been in business for a long time, since 1964. Marketing manager Uwe Rengers has said over the past few weeks: "It's a bit crazy now."
Riviera Pool was the public area - pools on ships and in hotels - broken off as a corona-dependent customer. "There is low tide first." But the demand for this from private customers is significantly higher. This becomes particularly clear with the so-called compact pools, small swimming pools of about two by four meters in a price category of 15,000 to 20,000 euros. According to Rengers, around 50 of them were last ordered in a week, almost twice as many as usual. And also from the large pools, more were sold from the beginning of January to the end of April, 269 instead of 259 - although the crisis of acquisition with exhibitions and campaign days pulled the plug.
For the first time, the company had to use external carriers to pick up the pools because their own fleet was busy. "It's crazy," says Rengers. "There is still enough money left. People are gilding their homes."
Online business is booming
Cornelius Grisar from La Siesta reports something similar. The managing director says that the online business of the hammock manufacturer from Rheinhessen has tripled since the outbreak of the crisis. This would compensate for losses from brick-and-mortar retail. Compared to the same month in the previous year, sales in April had skyrocketed by 85 percent. "We had the best sales in our 29-year history in April 2020, and we expect to top the new record again in June."
The high demand also has structural effects. For example, La Siesta remodeled its warehouse at short notice and introduced night shifts. "The big challenge for us is to keep contact restrictions among employees despite the increased demand, and that turns out to be a difficult task," says Grisar. In particular, there are delivery bottlenecks for products that are manufactured in India.
For Grisar, the longing for a hammock in times of crisis is not a new finding. "If the economy and people are not doing well, our product receives increased attention and demand," he says. Sooner or later, the situation will level off again. Next year, La Siesta will probably be back on the previous year's level.
Do-it-yourself instead of vacation
An assessment that pool expert Rengers shares. "We can well imagine that there will be a dent at some point. We have to be realistic, despite all the euphoria," he says.
By contrast, many customers have to queue up in front of the hardware stores this spring. However, the queues outside did not automatically mean that the cash register also rings inside, emphasizes the Hagebau chain from Soltau. So far, there have been no increases in sales compared to the previous year. However, in addition to seasonal items such as plants, soil and barbecue accessories, renovation products such as paints, brushes and spatulas are currently in greater demand.
"We are currently assuming that many people will not go on holiday this year - and will instead beautify their own homes," says von Hagebau. "As a result, there may be a catch-up effect, so that at the end of the year we will probably be able to generate sales as we planned for this year last year." If travel behavior normalizes again, this will also be reflected in demand.
