Performance level maintained

The Hagebau group is expecting the 2004 operating result to be in line with last year’s. The group’s plan foresees an increase in the turnover of the Hagebaumarkt stores to € 1.3 bn, which will exceed the previous year’s level by 1.4 per cent. The Soltau-based group of companies currently has 286 Hagebaumarkt outlets in Germany (288 last year). The trend towards garden centres remains unbroken, with units now to be found at 219 (+8) Hagebau locations. The combined retail area of the Hagebau stores has increased by 3.5 per cent during the current year.
In the garden and leisure buying segment the Hagebaumarkt stores showed sales down by 2.6 per cent in 2004 over the previous year, though the company says that this is better than the industry overall (-6 per cent). Sales of garden tools were heavily in the red at –12 per cent, with the exception of powered garden tools (+8 per cent). The greatest growth was displayed by animal and pet supplies with an increase of 25.8 per cent. Increases were also notched up by the handicrafts/floristry/books sector (+3.6 per cent). The “Wood in the garden” assortment was optimised to cover the range from entry-level models to top-class products and is now 2.0 per cent above last year’s level.