Rona’s growth from new business alone

In the first quarter (to 25 March) Rona, the Canadian home improvement group, saw total sales increase by 1.8 per cent compared with the same period last year to C $ 934.9 mio. The reasons for the growth include new openings and the group’s expansion of its trade business. In like-for-like terms, however, sales were 0.8 per cent down. Sales rose again in February and March, following a negative result in January. Members of the group specialising in building materials completed the quarter with a like-for-like increase of 4.2 per cent.Rona sees its neighbourhood store concept as increasingly significant. The stores in this sales channel gained 2.2 per cent like-for-like; they also play a major role in the strategic plan, “New realities, new solutions”. This includes the proposal that these stores should pick up the sales of five of the ten large-format DIY stores that the company announced its intention to sell in February.