The company

OBI is the leading brand in German and European building centres and do-it-yourself stores. At the moment, the franchise company OBI has 334 OBI stores in Germany. In addition to this, there are 183 OBI stores abroad:

Internationally, about 517 OBI stores have an integrated or free-standing garden paradise. In total, the OBI group of companies achieved, including all central companies, an overall turnover of 6.6 billion euro up to the 12/31/05. The company OBI employs about 30.000 employees.

In the next few years, the expansion of OBI will concentrate on Europe. The target aim is the market leadership. Especially Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, and Switzerland, as potential growth markets, will play a central role in the expansion politics of the future. At the moment, OBI is represented in ten Central and East European countries.

Since the opening of the first OBI store in 1970 (shopping centre Alstertal, Hamburg-Poppenbüttel) the sales area of the OBI stores have increased from 870 m² since then to more than 15,000 m². In the business year 2004/2005, the total sales area amounted to 3.2 million m².

Refering to a survey of the institute TNS Infratest OBI is one of the best known brands in Germany with a prompted brand recognition of 98 percent.