Retail sales of Massbuild lag behind trade business

The South African building materials and DIY store operator Massbuild increased its total sales in the first 19 weeks of 2018, thus from January to mid-May, by 6.1 per cent. Massbuild is part of the Massmart Group and operates the four brands Builders Warehouse, Builders Superstore, Builers Trade Depot and Builders Express. Comparable sales growth came to 4.4 per cent. In the South African stores the growth in contractors' sales was higher than 6.1 per cent, whilst the growth in sales to retail customers was lower. The company explained this with the statement that some economic pressure is still being felt by upper-income customers. Online sales grew "significantly", according to an interim report. The total sales growth of stores outside South Africa amounted to 6.1 per cent calculated in rand (ZAR).