Sales badly hit by the summer

The French DIY retailer Bricorama announces a trading volume to the tune of € 145.34 mio for the third quarter of 2003. That amounts to an increase of 1.11 per cent over the same period in the previous year. The company holds the general economic situation and the heat wave last summer responsible for this meagre level of growth: the cumulative sales volume that came to € 425.37 mio for the first three quarters resulted in a growth rate of just 3.94 per cent.
The company was obliged to record a deficit of 1.48 per cent in the third quarter in France. Growth of 2.94 per cent accumulated over the period between January and September. Business went very much better in Belgium and the Netherlands, where Bricorama operates as a franchisee of Intergamma. Here growth amounts to 8.21 per cent in the third quarter, and 8.16 per cent in the first three quarters. These stores, which have been converted into the Gamma or Karwei marketing formats since the beginning of the year 2003, achieved 11.9 per cent growth in the first nine months of the year.