Mid-year minus for Kesko

The DIY and builders’ merchant division of the Finnish Kesko Group has announced a sales deficit of 7.9 per cent at the end of the first six months of this year. Half-year sales amounted to € 1.3289 bn. In Finland the sales total of € 629.5 mio shows a fall of 5.1 per cent year-on-year, while a minus of 10.4 per cent to € 699.4 mio was reported abroad. This high deficit stems partly from the fact that the number of the group’s Byggmakker stores in Norway went down from 106 to 89 at the beginning of the year.