DIY eleven per cent up

In the first six months of 2007 the Baywa group of companies was able to increase sales of all business segments by 3.9 per cent to € 3.41 bn. The building segment reveals sales down by 1.7 per cent to € 807 mio. After adjustment, however, building materials turnover grew by 7.7 per cent: by contrast with last year, building materials sales by the Austrian subsidiary RWA to the tune of € 72 mio are no longer being entered in the group’s books but rather booked to the Lagerhäuser outlets there, according to Baywa. Sales of the DIY and garden stores rose by 11 per cent to € 246 mio. Pre-tax profit improved from minus € 4.6 mio to plus € 1.6 mio. This means the builders’ merchant business was 3 per cent above last year’s level (- € 5.9 mio), while the DIY and garden stores notched up an increase of 400 per cent to € 7.5 mio.