Sales down both at home and abroad

The Praktiker group has announced a sales decline of 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2011 on the comparable period last year. Sales amounted to € 1 623.0 mio for the first half-year as a whole, or 9.2 per cent down on the first half of 2010. Praktiker Germany reports second-quarter sales that are 11.2 per cent below the comparable figure from the previous year. By contrast the Max Bahr brand was able to maintain a stable level of sales. As a result the quarterly sales for the group’s business in Germany came to € 697.4 mio, which constitutes a drop of 7.8 per cent. International sales in the second quarter experienced a reduction of 8.3 per cent to € 259.2 mio. This resulted in a sales decline of 8.2 per cent for the first six months of the year to € 435.8 mio. The sales figures in Romania and Bulgaria again experienced a fall in double digits compared with the first quarter, though the sales decline in Greece eased off. Hungary and Albania were slightly in the black in like-for-like terms, while Poland also recorded sales growth. However, the positive trend evident in previous months in Ukraine failed to continue because of weakening exchange rates.