Foreign business continues to fuel Hornbach growth

The growth of German home improvement chain Hornbach continues to be driven by its foreign operations. In the eight countries outside Germany in which the family-owned group is active, sales in the first quarter (March to May) increased by 6.3 per cent to EUR 549.4 mio. The share of sales accounted for by Hornbach outlets abroad increased from 45.7 per cent to 47.3 per cent. Like-for-like sales net of currency items in the rest of Europe grew by 5.2 per cent.
In Germany the net sales of the Hornbach stores in the first quarter remained at virtually the level of the previous year (-0.1 per cent) at EUR 612.7 mio. Domestic sales on the same retail area declined by 0.2 per cent.
First-quarter sales in all Hornbach stores increased by 2.8 per cent to EUR 1.1621 bn and by 2.3 per cent in like-for-like terms net of currency items.
The Hornbach Group as a whole (Hornbach Holding AG & Co. KGaA group recorded sales of EUR 1.2273 bn in the first quarter, an increase of 2.7 per cent compared with the same period last year.