“Not satisfactory”

Praktiker, a German group of companies, recorded total sales of € 1.79 bn in the first six months of 2010. That is 5.8 per cent less than the same period last year. Chairman Wolfgang Werner said that this business trend was “not satisfactory”. In the German market the three brands represented there, Parktiker, Max Bahr and Extra Bau+Hobby, achieved sales of € 1.31 bn, which is 6.6 per cent down on the previous year (minus 7.7 per cent like-for-like). Sales in the company’s international business was 3.5 per cent down at € 474.5 mio (minus 7.3 per cent like-for-like). Sales of € 756.4 mio in Germany in the second quarter revealed a decline of 7.2 per cent, which was more pronounced than the result for the first three months. The situation abroad was the exact opposite. There sales of € 282.5 mio in the second quarter came to minus 1.0 per cent, or nearly last year’s level.