In France the group had 695 stores at the end of the year (nine more than a year previously). Of these, 312 operate under the Mr. Bricolage logo, 100 trade as Les Briconautes and 283 operate under individual logos. Their total sales fell by 3.2 per cent to EUR 1.7325 bn (like-for-like: -0.6 per cent). The 69 stores abroad grew sales by 3.5 per cent (like-for-like: 6.4 per cent) to EUR 248.5 bn.
A poor performance by the 65 stores operating under the control of the central office was reflected in a 14.9 per cent drop in sales to EUR 252.1 mio. If these stores were disregarded, the sales of outlets operated by members would have declined by just 1.0 per cent and sales on a comparable store area would have grown by 1.3 per cent.
As part of its Rebound strategy plan, the central office intends to surrender these self-managed stores where possible to existing franchise holders. This is because in its core business of wholesale and services for member businesses, the central office operated very successfully and increased its volume of business by 7.7 per cent to EUR 196.3 mio.