Clear minus for Praktiker in 2011

The German Praktiker group of companies had to cope with a sales decline of 7.7 per cent to € 3.3 bn in the 2011 financial year. For the first time in two years the sales of the Praktiker trading channel in Germany came close to the previous year’s level again in the fourth quarter of 2011 (minus 0.6 per cent, minus 0.2 per cent like-for-like). The minus still amounted to 12.7 per cent in the first nine months, and 10.3 per cent in the financial year overall.Business abroad declined by 12.6 per cent in the fourth quarter; the decrease came to 7.1 per cent in local currency. According to the company, business was particularly difficult in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. Worsening rates of exchange forced down the sales figures, calculated in euros, in Poland, Hungary and Turkey. On the other hand, growth was recorded in Luxembourg and Ukraine. At the Max Bahr distribution channel the previous year’s sales base line was missed by 1.7 per cent in the last quarter of 2011. Despite this, Max Bahr completed the 2011 financial year with a sales increase of 1.4 per cent.The Praktiker group had 439 stores in operation at the end of 2011, one up on the previous year’s total. The network of branches abroad grew from 107 to 109, taking into account the store closure in Albania that was completed to schedule in December. The number of stores at home went down from 331 to 330; 235 of these belonged to Praktiker (previous year 236), 78 to Max Bahr and 17 to the Extra Bau + Hobby trading format.