Good first six months

The German builders’ merchant and DIY stores achieved gross sales of € 9.3 bn in the first six months of 2007, meaning they experienced growth of 3.7 per cent on the same period last year, according to a BHB announcement. The plus came to 1.6 per cent in like-for-like terms. Product categories achieving significant rates of increase were garden furniture including barbecues (13 per cent up), garden decoration (ten per cent up) and garden watering products (plus 24 per cent).