International growth above all for Hornbach

Hornbach has announced a sales increase for the holding company of 6.6 per cent to € 2.367 bn for the financial year to 28 February 2006. Hornbach Baumarkt AG increased its sales by 6.7 per cent to € 2.234 bn. The greater part of this growth came from the company's international business, which has resulted in the foreign component rising from 33 to 35 per cent. The stores outside Germany achieved a sales increase of 14.5 per cent (3.9 per cent like-for-like). Sales in Germany saw an overall increase of 2.8 per cent, which translates into a like-for-like loss of 1.1 per cent. Earnings remain "Probably below last year's high level, as expected," said Albrecht Hornbach, chairman of the holding company.
Hornbach opened eight stores altogether in the 2005/2006 financial year, five of them in Germany and one each in Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The company now operates 124 DIY and garden stores with a combined retail area of 1.3 mio m². The average floorspace per branch has gone up from 10 200 m² to more than 10 600 m².