Growth in Germany

In the second quarter of 2008 the German DIY superstores increased gross sales by 0.5 per cent over the previous year. All sales records were broken in May, when more than € 2 bn flowed into the DIY retailers’ tills. This emerges from the latest GfK/BHB report, which tracks the development of the large-format DIY specialist stores with a minimum covered sales area of 1 000 m². Gross sales of the DIY stores add up to € 9.13 bn at the end of the first six months, which amounts to a decrease of 2.2 per cent (-3.7 per cent like-for-like) compared with last year.