On a new scale

The 405 stores belonging to the French DIY group’s Mr. Bricolage marketing format achieved gross sales of € 332.3 mio in the first quarter 2003. The 20.5 per cent increase over the same period in the preceding year can be explained by the reformatting of 43 B3 and Bricogite stores belonging to Groupe Tabur, which was taken over last year. The increase came to 5.3 per cent in like-for-like terms. Mr. Bricolage operated 159 sales outlets under the name of Catena on the reporting date of 31 March. Their quarterly sales came to € 31 mio, which amounts to growth (unadjusted) of 6.6 per cent. The company’s head office itself operates 76 outlets, 66 of them belonging to the Mr. Bricolage line. The centrally-operated businesses had sales of € 58.1 mio.