In 2023, the European interior door market experienced a setback, witnessing a decline of 6.1% in units sold. This downward trend is projected to persist in 2024, with a further reduction of 5.0% in units sold, according to a recent study conducted by Interconnection Consulting.

 Renovation Segment Rises

The interior door market mirrors the dynamic shifts within Europe’s construction industry. In 2023, a significant downturn in new construction activities led to a 10% decline in sales of interior doors in this segment. Conversely, the renovation sector, displaying greater resilience amidst the crisis, experienced a comparatively modest decline of only 1.3% in sales. With bleak prospects for new construction projects across Europe this year, another substantial drop in door sales within this segment is anticipated. However, the renovation segment is poised for stability, with sales expected to hold steady at around 14 million units in the top 8 European countries.

In Italy, the renovation segment experienced strong value sales growth of 7.8% in 2023, buoyed by government bonuses and incentives. Similarly, Poland and Germany are implementing new measures to bolster their construction markets.  In Poland, easier access to mortgages and government programs like the ‘2% Credit’ initiative is expected to stimulate housing demand. Germany’s 14-point plan targets accelerated planning and permitting procedures for construction initiatives, aiming to mitigate the ongoing property crisis and boost economic activity.

Painted Doors Rule the Market

In 2023, painted doors continued their dominance in the European interior door market, commanding an impressive 51.1% share. Leading this trend is France, boasting an 80.2% market share for painted doors, followed closely by the Netherlands at 70.3% and Italy at 49.8%.

Laminate emerges as the second most sought-after material, capturing a 27.7% share overall. Notably, in Poland, laminate reigns supreme with a commanding 54.4% market share. Looking ahead, painted doors are expected to maintain their strong performance, with sales forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.0% until 2027.

Germany is the Frontrunner in the Market

In the European ranking, Germany leads in volume, commanding nearly 24%, trailed by France with almost 19% and Poland at 16,7%. Looking ahead, significant sales growth is anticipated, particularly in Spain, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3% in terms of quantity.

Some of the most important European producers on the door market are, in alphabetical order: Braga, Brunex, Doornite, Dre, Grauthoff, Huet, Jeld Wen, Lebo, Malerba, Mosel-Borne, Norma Doors, Pol-Skone, Porta Doors, Prüm-Garant, Righini, Theuma, Weekamp.

The study covers the following countries: Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, and Poland.

After only slight declines in 2020, the market for exterior doors in the five largest markets in Western Europe (Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Great Britain) is already set to exceed the pre-crisis level this year. For this year, a growth in volume of 5.4% is expected. Slowly but steadily, however, the market will lose momentum in the coming years. Therefore, the average annual growth for the years 2020 to 2024 is 4.0%, as shown in a study by Interconnection Consulting.

There are two areas in particular that are causing the positive sentiment in the market. On the one hand, the residential construction segment, where sales of exterior doors are expected to increase by 6.9% in 2021, and on the other hand, the renovation segment, which will clearly outperform the new construction segment (+3.6%) in terms of dynamics with a forecast increase of 6.5%. The residential segment is the most important sales market for exterior doors with 79% and the renovation sector is far ahead of the new construction segment with a market share of 62%. On the other hand, the non-residential market segment is finding it harder to get back on track after the crisis in all regions surveyed. Due to price increases, turnover in the five countries will rise by 10.9% in 2021, much more than sales.

Growth in the Markets Divided

The individual markets and their developments were quite similar, but also show some differences due to different conditions in the countries. In Italy, sales of exterior doors fell by 7.8% last year. This year, however, the market rose again rapidly (+4.6%). This was not least due to the introduction of the Superbonus 110 by the government, which reimbursed households 110% of their renovation investment up to a certain limit. In France, the market shrank by 7.7% in 2020 but will grow again by 6.5% this year. As in all the examined markets, the residential renovation segment will be the biggest driver of the French market, with an increase of 7.7%. In new construction, primarily detached and semi-detached houses are generating strong demand. In Germany, the exterior doors market also went uphill in 2020. This increase will continue at an accelerated pace in residential construction in 2021 (+4.9%). The residential construction sector in particular is proving very resilient to the crisis. Favourable housing loans and the stabilisation of household incomes by the government are having a positive effect on the demand for exterior doors in the housing market. The renovation segment in the residential construction segment is also proving to be very robust. On the other hand, the non-residential construction sector in Germany will see a minus this year (-3.5%). Laszlo Barla, the author of the study, explains the reasons for the decline in non-residential construction: “Decreasing investments in commercial and industrial construction are decisive“. 2020 was also a challenging year for the UK. The market plunged by almost 10% in 2020. However, a strong rebound effect is expected for this year and the next. Growth will be 7.0% this year and 5.4% in 2022. In the UK, too, it is the housing sector that is driving growth through high approvals in mortgage lending. But business investment is also picking up as uncertainties over trade relations with the EU slowly dissipate. In Spain, the market is even more divided than in most other countries. While the residential construction segment grew by 4.2% in 2020, the non-residential sector declined by 2.9%. The divergence will continue this year with a growth of 7.3% on one side and a decline of -3.2% on the non-residential side.

Trend Towards Aluminium

In terms of materials, aluminium has a narrow lead with a market share of 32.1%, closely followed by PVC with 30.8%. However, this close result only shows a snapshot. “PVC has only benefited from the increased renovation in the short term. In the longer term, PVC’s shares are actually slightly declining,” says Laszlo Barla. An exception in the market is Italy, where wooden doors are the most popular material, with a market share of 26.5%. However, we can see that this market share is steadily decreasing. The number one material in France and Germany is aluminium with a market share of 33 and 35% respectively. In the UK, PVC dominates with more than 40% of the market share. This share will remain stable over the next few years. However, aluminium will grow a little more than PVC, from 25% today to 26% market share. In Spain, aluminium is almost alone in the pack. The market share of the dominant front door material is 71%, followed by wood and PVC.

Last year, the market for fire doors in Europe suffered a pandemic-related setback of 6.2%. The market is not set to recover from this with significant growth rates until 2022. A market volume of 3.4 billion euros is expected by 2024, as a study by Interconnection Consulting shows.

The market volume for fire doors in Europe fell from 3.2 to 3.0 billion euros in 2020. Although declines were recorded in all the submarkets studied, they were of varying degrees. Germany, the largest market for fire doors in the EU, recorded a decline of almost four percent, following the current weakness in non-residential construction activity. Despite this decline, however, Germany can still do very well in comparison. Italy, for example, recorded a hard crash of -15.4%. In the Benelux countries and Great Britain the decline was 9.5% and 8.6% respectively. The Scandinavian region recorded a minus of more than 5%.

Alternatives to Steel in Demand

The rising prices of steel have led to an increase in market share for other materials such as aluminium. Nevertheless, the steel segment remains very strong with a share of more than 40%, while the wood segment continues to lead with 46% shares in value. However, demand for the different material types varies greatly from country to country. While steel fire doors dominate in Germany, in France and Great Britain it is the timber segment. Wood is mainly used for fire doors with longer fire resistance (90min, 120min), while steel is mainly used for fire doors with shorter fire resistance (30min, 60min), due to the otherwise sprawling door thickness. Fire doors with 30min fire protection are the strongest market segment with a market share of almost 60 percent.

Standardisation Under Fire

The European market for fire doors is characterised by high price differences between the individual countries, which is mainly due to different fire protection regulations in the European countries. The latest hopes were now based on a harmonisation of safety standards in the EU and Turkey through the introduction of the new product standard EN 16034. The new regulation should have come into force at the end of 2019 for all fire doors, but for the time being interior doors and automatic doors remain excluded from the labelling and are still subject to the standards of the respective country. Experts say that this makes it more difficult for manufacturers to offer their products throughout Europe according to a standardised norm. The new standard currently only applies to exterior doors as fire doors and sliding doors. “Considering that the market share of these areas is almost negligible, standardisation has not brought anything so far,” criticises Sasa Spiridonov, the author of the study. It is still unclear when the entire product range will finally be subject to uniform standardisation.

After a very promising start to the new year, the fire door industry in Western Europe experienced a major slump. In the first quarter of 2020, the market fell by 11.5 percent in value compared to 2019. For the full year, Interconnection Consulting expects a decline of 5.6% compared to the previous year. The market level of 2019 is not expected to be reached again until 2023.

Italy, Denmark and Sweden Will See Double-Digit Declines

In Germany, the largest market for fire rated doors in Europe, a decline of 7.4% is expected for the year as a whole, caused in large parts by the strong declines in non-residential construction. One of the strongest slumps in the EU is currently forecast for Italy (-10.1%), while the fire rated door market in the Benelux countries and Great Britain will lose 8.7% and 7.6% respectively. Scandinavia is also hard hit by the crisis and will lose a total of 9.6%, with the decline in Denmark and Sweden likely to be in the double digits.

Great Expectations for EN16034

The market has high expectations for the introduction of new standards for the harmonisation of directives within the EU and Turkey in order to guarantee fair conditions for the manufacturers. However, these changes, which came into force in November 2019, only affected exterior doors and sliding doors. “The outer doors in particular affect only a slight proportion of all fire rated doors and therefore the effects on price harmonisation are not yet as strong as desired,” explains Jan Hudak, the author of the study. However, this is one of the big goals to narrow the big price differences in different countries. Therefore, in the future, wooden doors with fire resistance of 90 and 120 minutes will dominate at the upper end of the price scale, while steel doors will remain dominant at the lower end of the resistance scale (30 min and 60 min).

Gloomy Outlook

The fall in demand in the first half of 2020 will be somewhat weakened from September due to the building permits already issued – which total around 3 billion euros. The two-digit decline figures that are expected by summer can thus be partially offset. Nevertheless, the gradual easing of measures to curb COVID-19 will only partially lead to recovery. The market for fire rated doors will not fully recover from the crisis until 2022.

The market for automatic door systems has slightly grown in Europe last year. Overall, the increase in turnover and sales amounted to 1.8% in 2016 and was therefore significantly higher than in previous years. This trend will continue in the coming years.  According to a study by experts from Interconnection Consulting, by 2019 an average annual growth rate of 3% per year is expected.

Sliding doors are the unchallenged leaders

The largest product group in all analyzed countries are automatic sliding doors, with a market share of 46.8%. The second largest group is swing doors with 31.2%. Over the next few years, these two product groups will generate disproportionate growth and will thus further increase their market shares. Revolving doors and telescopic doors are far behind, with a share of 7.3% and 7.0%, respectively.

Great Britain and Poland are stimulating the market

Almost all of the analyzed countries were able to achieve at least minimal growth last year. Only Italy still awaits the long-awaited boom in the construction industry, which should give construction-dependent industries a boost. This will already be the case in 2017. Interconnection expects a hefty plus (+4.9%) for Italy for the first time after years of downturn.

The growth drivers of the European market last year were Poland and Great Britain. Poland achieved a sales upturn of 4.4% in 2016. A total of 11.414 automatic doors were sold last year, of which 59.4% were sliding doors. Compared to Polish sales, British sales figures were roughly three times higher. The increase was 3.7%. Despite the political and economic uncertainty caused by Brexit, this sector is expected to continue to grow rapidly, says Marianna Svartzova, author of the study. Last year, for the first time in a year of downturn, France was able to regain a slight growth again (+1.2 in value). This moderate growth (between 1.0% and 2.0%) is also expected to continue in the coming years.

Moderate growth for Germany, Austria and Switzerland

With a market volume of 176.5 million Euros, the German market is by far the largest market for door automation. Last year, the German market developed very moderately (+1.5%). However, the prospects for the next few years promise higher gains. Austria’s market for tourism has stagnated in recent years (2016: sales: +0.3%). Market consolidation has led to declining average prices in recent years. Next year, the industry is expected to experience significant growth again, Interconnection Consulting experts predict. The market for automatic doors in Switzerland is almost 10% larger than in Austria. Last year, sales increased by 2.7% and the Swiss market for automatic doors will continue to maintain its high growth level in the future. A total of 54.4% of all sales in Switzerland were for sliding doors.

Strong distinction of market concentration

As in many other sectors, there is also a tendency towards ever-increasing market concentration in the sector of automatic doors. In the UK, the shares of the top 10 companies are the lowest (83.4%). The shares of the ten largest companies in the overall market are highest in France (93.2%). The largest companies for automatic doors across Europe are Assa Abloy, Geze, Dormakaba, Record and Gilgen.

The market for garage doors in Austria has experienced an upswing in recent years. However, the Austrian construction crisis resulting from the COVID 19 crisis will also affect the market for garage doors (2020: -3.7%). A new study by Interconnection Consulting shows a slightly negative prognosis for the years after 2020.

Renovation as a Glimmer of Hope

Interconnection assumes that the market for garage doors in Austria will only grow by an average of 1.0% per year until 2023. The renovation market, however, is profitable for the major European manufacturers in Austria. After all, garage doors in Austria are changed twice as often on average as in neighbouring countries. Thanks to the crisis, the renovation segment is becoming even more important. The share of this segment rose to almost 70 percent (67.1%) of the total market during the crisis. Before the crisis, the share was around 65%.

Steel and Sectional Doors Dominate

Steel accounts for the majority of garage doors in Austria, with a share of 86.7%. Aluminium is the second most used material with 8.2%. Whereby the share of aluminium is growing particularly in the area of up-and-over and folding doors. Wood represents an elegant but also expensive niche and therefore only accounts for a share of 2.9%. 82.7% of all garage doors are sectional doors.  “This product group has proven itself to be practical and convenient for many years, and is also no more expensive than rolling and folding doors,” explains Vito Graziano, the author of the study. However, up-and-over doors will develop best after the crisis. As a result of the crisis, average prices have also fallen a little, by -1.3%.

High Market Concentration

The Austrian market is characterised by a high concentration of the top 5, with top 5 companies accounting for around four fifths of the total market. The top ranks are occupied by European players.  Domestic companies have mainly created niches in their original federal states, often by marketing their products via direct distribution. Together, however, they account for less than 15 percent of the market.