Marked rise in Hagebau’s central sales

Centrally invoiced sales of Hagebau, a German specialised trading cooperative, grew by 19.7 per cent to € 1.3 bn in the first quarter of 2012. Product sales rose by 14.9 in Germany, by 28 per cent in Switzerland, 29.2 per cent in Luxembourg and 36.7 per cent in Austria. Hagebau expects an increase of 13.9 per cent for the current year.On the retail side (334 outlets of the Hagebaumarkt sales channel in Germany and Austria, 26 Werkmarkt stores and 32 other DIY stores) exceeded the level of the previous year’s centrally invoiced sales by 4.7 per cent. This breaks down into an increase of 9.7 per cent for the DIY sector, while the garden sector finished only slightly above the previous year’s level (+0.2 per cent). The specialised trade made the greatest contribution to the company’s growth, notching up a sales increase of 33.6 per cent. Sales of building materials saw a rise of 41.7 per cent and tiling achieved 11.1 per cent. The timber trade accounted for a total of € 160.6 mio, which amounts to growth of 15.5 per cent.