According to the Central Association of the German Crafts (ZDH), a firm extinction is drawing a picture of itself in the trade. By 2030, around 125,000 businesses are expected to be looking for a new leader. By 2045, it will be around 450,000 companies, which is nearly every second craft business.
However, the successor search is very difficult, said the vice president of the ZDH, Franz Xaver Peteranderl, to Bild am Sonntag. “Many businesses will cease to exist” he said. He warned of longer waiting times. “For the customers, that means they will probably have to wait longer to find a craftsman” Peteranderl said.
Currently, customers have to wait an average of almost nine weeks for a craftsman’s appointment. “The order books of the businesses are currently filled to 90 percent for eight to nine weeks” Peteranderl told Bild am Sonntag. It will definitely “not be the same as in the 2000s, when you called a craftsman and he was at the door the next day.