According to BHB, the first and the fourth quarters were mainly decisive for growth in financial year 2017. Thus, there was an increase of 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter to EUR 4.25 bn.
When looking at the product range development over the whole of the year, according to the GfK-Total-Store-Report, DIY stores made the most sales in 2017 with the assortments construction chemicals/construction material (EUR 1.83 bn), sanitary/heating (EUR 1.78 bn), tools/machines/workshop equipment (EUR 1.27 bn), electrical (EUR 1.26 bn), coating materials/painting accessories (EUR 1.25 bn) and garden equipment (EUR 1.24 bn). Garden ranges a whole, consisting of the product groups garden equipment (EUR 1.24 bn), garden furniture (EUR 317.5 mio), garden equipment/irrigation and drainage (EUR 999.6 mio), living greenery (EUR 1.01 bn) and garden chemicals/soils/seeds (EUR 588.1 mio), achieved sales of EUR 4.16 bn and thus 22.5 per cent of the entire annual sales.
Growth drivers were construction chemicals/construction material (+4.5 per cent compared to 2016), living greenery (+4.0 per cent), garden equipment (+3.9 per cent), tools/machines and workshop equipment (+3.6 per cent). On the other hand, there were clear declines in sales in the product groups garden furniture (-9.6 per cent), home/decorating (-6.6 per cent) and furniture (-3.8 per cent).