Garden centres and hardware aisles are an under-rated pet gateway, and Hornbach proves it — aquatics, outdoor housing and accessories sell where customers are already thinking about living spaces.
Hornbach: A Building-and-Garden Retailer
- Founded: Family hardware roots trace to 1877; the first self-service DIY megastore was opened in 1968 by Otmar Hornbach.
- Founder / Family: The Hornbach family; today led by Chairman Albrecht Hornbach (CEO of HORNBACH Management AG).
- Headquarters: Bornheim (Palatinate), Germany (Hornbachstraße 11, 76879 Bornheim).
- Ownership: Family-run, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and included in the SDAX (HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA).
- Scale / Revenue: Consolidated net sales of approximately EUR 6.2 billion in 2024/25 (HORNBACH Baumarkt subgroup EUR 5.85 billion); adjusted EBIT up about 6 percent to EUR 270 million.
- Stores: 172 DIY megastores with garden centres (including specialist flooring stores) across nine European countries, plus 39 HORNBACH Baustoff Union builders’ merchant outlets; about 97 stores are in Germany.
- Workforce: Around 25,000 employees.
- Customers: DIY and garden shoppers across Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Czechia, Switzerland, Sweden, Luxembourg and other European markets.
- Quality Marker: Sales productivity of about EUR 2,849 per square metre, ahead of competitors.
The DIY Traffic Engine
HORNBACH competes on a “permanent low-price” strategy combined with an unusually deep, project-grade assortment and high service standards. Unlike discount-oriented rivals, it targets serious DIYers and tradespeople who need reliable, specification-driven products, and it reinforces this with garden centres and specialist flooring stores. The format is the large-footprint megastore with garden centre, supported by a well-established online shop (Click & Collect contributes over 12 percent of Baumarkt sales).
For suppliers, HORNBACH buys centrally for its Baumarkt subgroup and expects technical rigor. The buying culture is engineering-led: products must meet documented specifications, carry credible third-party testing (CE, TÜV, SGS or equivalent), and demonstrate durability. Because the chain prizes consistency and low failure rates, it is less tolerant of quality variability than price-led discounters. A supplier that clears the bar, however, gains a stable, long-tenured relationship with a financially disciplined, family-controlled retailer that has raised its dividend for decades.
The group’s geography and structure shape how a supplier engages. The Baumarkt subgroup operates megastores with garden centres across nine countries — Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Czechia, Switzerland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Romania — while the separate HORNBACH Baustoff Union runs 39 builders’ merchant outlets focused on professional building-material customers in southwestern Germany and bordering France. A pet-supplies vendor typically sells into the Baumarkt garden and animal-care departments, but the builders’ merchant arm is irrelevant to pet ranges. Understanding this split helps a supplier target the correct buying team and avoid pitching pet lines into the wrong segment.
Garden, Aquatic and Pet Adjacency
HORNBACH carries a dedicated pet range within its garden and animal-care departments, including pet food, toys and accessories, which supports that animal care is an established part of the assortment. Beyond packaged pet food, the garden-centre and outdoor-living formats create adjacency for pet houses, enclosures, outdoor shelters, feeding stations, aquariums, pond and bird supplies, and small-animal habitats — products that align with the retailer’s project-and-garden identity.
For exporters, the most realistic entry is garden- and home-adjacent pet products rather than mainstream pet food, where established brands dominate. Manufacturers of wooden or metal pet housing, weatherproof outdoor shelters, aquariums and pond equipment can pitch to the garden and animal-care buying teams. HORNBACH’s emphasis on quality and specification means a differentiated, well-engineered product with credible testing will stand out more than a lowest-cost commodity, which suits suppliers with genuine manufacturing depth.
Supplier and Private-Label Requirements
HORNBACH applies strict European compliance and quality gates. Pet-relevant goods must satisfy the EU General Product Safety Regulation, REACH substance restrictions, CE marking for electrical and equipment items, and EU timber regulation for wooden pet housing (legal sourcing plus pet-safe treatments). Suppliers should expect requests for third-party test certificates from recognized bodies such as TÜV or SGS, a function of the chain’s engineering-grade expectations.
Commercially, HORNBACH values suppliers who can support both the megastore network and the online channel with clean, structured product data and reliable, on-time delivery. Exporters need European-compliant labelling and packaging, including local-language instructions and dual-system recycling participation. The retailer’s low tolerance for defects means incoming-quality and complaint-rate metrics matter; a new supplier should prepare for rigorous onboarding and possibly pilot quantities before full rollout. Suppliers with ISO, IFS or BRCGS backgrounds and demonstrable quality systems will move through qualification faster.
2024-2026 Expansion
HORNBACH’s 2024/25 year was solid despite a weak consumer climate: consolidated net sales rose 0.6 percent to EUR 6.2 billion and adjusted EBIT improved about 6 percent to EUR 270 million. The company gained market share in every measured country — Germany (15.2 percent), the Netherlands (28.1 percent), Czechia (37.7 percent) and Switzerland (14.3 percent) — and maintained a high Austrian share near 17.3 percent. Online sales, including Click & Collect, reached about EUR 720 million.
Momentum carried into 2025/26: first-quarter sales grew 5.7 percent to EUR 1,909.2 million with adjusted EBIT up 10.4 percent to EUR 162 million. In July 2025 the Annual General Meeting approved a continued dividend of EUR 2.40, marking 38 consecutive years without a dividend reduction — a striking signal of financial stability for suppliers assessing long-term partnership risk. HORNBACH also reopened a rebuilt store in Nürnberg in 2025, which reflects steady estate investment. For pet suppliers, the picture is a financially robust, quality-obsessed retailer expanding share and able to support stable, specification-driven supply relationships.
The Pet Hardware Opportunity
HORNBACH is a “quality proof” account: winning here validates a supplier’s engineering and compliance credentials across the European DIY trade. Exporters should target the garden, animal-care and outdoor-living buyers with differentiated, well-tested pet products — shelters, enclosures, aquariums, feeding accessories — backed by CE/TÜV/SGS documentation and pet-safe, timber-legal materials. Avoid leading with price alone; HORNBACH rewards demonstrable durability and specification completeness.
Suppliers should prepare for a rigorous, likely phased qualification, starting with pilot volumes and proving defect-free delivery before scale. A European logistics and language-compliant packaging setup is effectively mandatory. Once listed, the family-controlled, dividend-stable retailer offers durable, low-churn distribution across nine countries and a reputation that strengthens a supplier’s profile with peer buyers. For manufacturers with genuine quality depth, HORNBACH is worth the higher bar.
— Scott Zhu, Founder, GlobalPetIndex
Sources & Related Reading
Related on GlobalPetIndex
- More Market Intel: Retail Channel
- Global Pet Brand Directory
- Kingfisher: Home-Improvement Adjacency and Own-Brand Pet Opportunities
- Leroy Merlin (ADEO): Garden, Aquatic and Private-Label Pet Opportunities
- Bricoman (ADEO): Trade-Grade and Private-Label Pet Adjacency
