Improvement at year's end

The Canadian DIY group, Rona, completed the 2009 financial year with sales down by 4.4 per cent to C $ 4.6774 bn. The decline amounted to 4.8 per cent like-for-like. The situation improved towards the end of the year, with sales in the fourth quarter increasing by 1.5 per cent (0.7 per cent like-for-like) to C $ 1.1409 bn. For the current year Rona expects like-for-like growth of 2 - 2.5 per cent.