Bricorama still with sales deficit

The French Bricorama Group continued to record sales losses in the third quarter. Revenue fell by 3.0 per cent compared with the same period last year to € 185.5 mio. In France the loss amounted to 3.1 per cent on a sales volume of € 120.6 mio. The stores in the Benelux region reported sales of € 59.7 mio, or 2.2 per cent down. As the company explained, the 10.3 per cent decline in Spain to € 5.2 mio was wholly the result of a store closure. Seen in like-for-like terms, sales remained level in a stabilised market. The result for the first three quarters was a sales decline of 6.1 per cent to € 529.3 mio. Consequently Bricorama expects the full year to end with a sales deficit in the order of five per cent. Moreover, the company is reckoning with a 13 per cent fall in its forecast for the operational result. At the end of the quarter Bricorama had 176 stores in operation; added to these are 49 outlets belonging to franchise partners. The company has announced three closures for the fourth quarter: one each in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.