German sector’s results down

With combined gross sales of € 18.06 bn in the 2013 financial year the DIY retailers in Germany remained 2.9 per cent below the previous year’s result. These figures were announced by the BHB, a German industry association, at the International Hardware Fair in Cologne. The decline comes to 2.6 per cent after adjustment. Without the sales figures of the Praktiker Group, which was declared insolvent in 2013, the minus amounts to 0.7 per cent. According to the association, severe sales losses resulting from bad weather at the beginning of the year, especially in the garden sector, combined with the effects of Praktiker’s bankruptcy, definitely left their mark on the full year’s earnings.