Rautakesko grows by one-third

Rautakesko, the builders' merchant and DIY retail division of Kesko, the Finnish trading group, succeeded in increasing sales in 2006 by 32.6 per cent over the previous year, resulting in a total of € 2.167 bn. The figures from the group's acquisition in July 2005 of the Norwegian company Norgros and the Russian Stroymaster chain have had their impact on these results.
In Finland last year Rautakesko recorded an increase of 5.8 per cent to € 852.9 mio. Sales in the other countries added up to € 1.314 bn. Here the rate of increase amounted to 58.6 per cent.