Rona in the red

Rona, the Canadian building materials and DIY retail group, completed the third quarter of 2009 with sales down by 4.4 per cent to C $ 1.321 bn. While like-for-like sales in the retail sector were 5.3 per cent below last year’s figure, they fell by only 1.6 per cent in the wholesale sector. A figure of C $ 49.1 mio is revealed for the group’s net earnings, which amounts to a fall of 6.4 per cent. Rona reports a sales decline of 6.1 per cent to C $ 3.536 bn for the first nine months of the financial year, with net earnings experiencing a fall of 15.2 per cent to C $ 107.4 mio.