Slight sales decline

In 2007 the 752 outlets belonging to the Zeus system, Hagebaumarkt (DIY stores), Werkmarkt (specialist stores) and Floraland (garden centres), only just failed to maintain the previous year’s level of net retail sales in Germany and Austria of approx. € 2.1 bn, which reveals a 0.2 per cent decline. The situation is similar for the 703 German outlets within the system, whose net retail sales remained static at approx. € 1.89 bn, indicating a slight decline of 0.7 per cent. The 49 Austrian Hagebaumarkt stores, which have been serviced by Zeus since early 2007, were able to increase their net retail sales in the recent financial year by 4.9 per cent to € 0.18 bn. By contrast, the net retail sales of the 290 German Hagebaumarkt stores went down by 0.8 per cent to € 1.28 bn in 2007.