{"id":5930,"date":"2025-10-19T09:21:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T09:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiconference.gr\/john-herbert\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:29:15","slug":"john-herbert","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hiconference.gr\/en\/john-herbert\/","title":{"rendered":"
John Herbert

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General Secretary European DIY Retail Association (EDRA) & Global Home Improvement Network<\/p>\n<\/div>

He has been in retailing since 1956, for an incredible 66 years, and in the home improvement and DIY industry since 1983. Flexible, open minded, with passion for networking, for connecting people, for culture, but above all passion for life, passion for people and respect for people – respect for everyone: these are the words to describe the man who started working in retail at the age of 15 and who has made EDRA\/GHIN what it is. <\/p>\n

He had the opportunity to visit 53 countries with over 400 trips since he co-founded the association in 2002. He takes these opportunities to keep in contact with the 215 members of EDRA\/GHIN who operate more than 32,000 stores in 75 countries worldwide and generate a total annual turnover of about 320 billion Euros. <\/p>\n

Born in York, England, John, who celebrates his 84th birthday in April this year, began his career in retail 65 years ago, in 1956, working as a Shop Assistant at the York Co-op.<\/p>\n

He came to Germany in 1962 as a soldier in the British Rhine Army. In 1965 he joined the NAAFI, the military\u2019s retail organisation, which he left as District manager in 1975. John was then employed in the management of the first hypermarkets in Germany before returning to the UK and opening, as Store Director, the first Sainsbury\u2019s\/British Home Store Sava Centre in Washington Tyne & Wear. The store was Britain\u2019s most modern at the time and one of the largest in Europe. <\/p>\n

In 1979 he returned to Germany and took on management positions in the Hypermarkets at Marktkauf and Continent.<\/p>\n

In 1983, John was appointed Managing Director of Bonn-based DIY retail chain Carl Knauber. At Knauber John developed and realised a new generation of hobby, DIY and garden markets that revolutionised the industry – through innovative marketing and advertising concepts – which made the Knauber hobby market in Bonn a Mecca for DIY enthusiasts.\u2028After 17 years at Knauber John began looking for a new challenge.<\/p>\n

In 2000, at the age of 59, he was appointed President West Coast USA of the new EXPO Design Centre at the world’s largest DIY group, The Home Depot. Upon his return to Germany he was elected General Manager of BHB, the German Home improvement Retail Association. In 2002 he co-founded and became General Secretary of EDRA. GHIN, the global network of home improvement retailers, was founded in 2009.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5864,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5930","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Herbert - DIY conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hiconference.gr\/en\/john-herbert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Herbert - DIY conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hiconference.gr\/en\/john-herbert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DIY conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-20T16:29:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hiconference.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/John_Herbert_big.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2362\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1062\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hiconference.gr\/en\/john-herbert\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hiconference.gr\/en\/john-herbert\/\",\"name\":\"John Herbert - 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