Expansion for Mestre Maco

The Portuguese DIY chain, Mestre Maco, will open a 4 000 m² DIY superstore at Aveiro, 200 km north of Lisbon, at the end of October. There are plans for nine more new openings altogether for 2006 and 2007. With 20 DIY stores and a combined retail area of 55 000 m², the company is number two in the Portuguese DIY market after the Leroy Merlin group (Leroy Merlin and Aki). Fourteen of the 20 stores also have a garden centre. According to information from the company, sales in the third quarter were up by 35 per cent, or 9.5 per cent like-for-like, in spite of the difficult economic situation in Portugal.