Successful year

Rautakesko, the building materials and DIY retail division of the Finnish Kesko group, achieved net sales of € 1.1731 bn in 2004. This amounts to growth of 15.2 per cent over the previous year. Sales in Finland saw an increase of 8.1 per cent to € 752.8 mio, and in the other countries – Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – of 30.7 per cent for a total of € 420.2 mio.
The hardware and building materials retailers who are members of K-Alliance achieved gross sales of € 1.4474 bn, which amounts to an increase of 14.6 per cent over the previous year. This breaks down into sales of € 951.4 mio in Finland (+ 7.6 per cent), € 115.3 mio in Sweden (+ 17.4 per cent), € 60 mio in Estonia (+ 13.2 per cent), € 25.7 mio in Latvia (+ 2.1 per cent) and € 295 mio in Lithuania (+ 45.3 per cent).