Wesfarmers Chief Executive, Rob Scott, has taken the conglomerate’s Board on a ‘tour’ of German hardware chains, reportedly gaining further insight into retail innovations within the DIY sector.

Reported by the Australian Financial Review, Mr Scott and Bunning MD, Mike Schneider, visited chains such as Hornbach, Bauhaus and OBI – the later the third largest DIY retailer in the world.

The tour reportedly comes two years after Wesfarmers management toured Bunnings’ UK stores, following its luckless $700 million+ acquisition  of British based hardware giant, Homebase, in 2016.

As previously reported, Wesfarmers ditched Homebase last year, booking over a billion dollars in writedowns.

The news comes as the local DIY and hardware market continues to intensify, with growing competition from likes of Kogan.com, Amazon Australia, ALDI and soon to be Kaufland.

Bunnings ANZ has continued to remain a Wesfarmers crown jewel, now contributing nearly half of Group sales following the Coles de-merger.

The company has also pledged to ramp up Bunnings’ e-commerce functionality amid growing retail competition.