Considerable increase in sales abroad for Hornbach

The German Hornbach Group realised sales worth € 863.0 mio in its DIY business unit in the third quarter (ended 30 November 2015), equivalent to an increase of 5.9 per cent over the same period in the previous year. In the first nine months of 2015/2016, the 153 Hornbach DIY and garden stores in nine European countries boosted their net sales by 4.7 per cent to € 2.8 bn. On a like-for-like basis and adjusted for currency effects, DIY sales in the third quarter increased by 2.9 per cent and in the first nine months of fiscal 2015/2016 by 1.8 per cent.
The elevated figures are due primarily to strong demand outside Germany, where adjusted sales rose by seven per cent in the third quarter and by 3.7 per cent in the first nine months. These figures more than compensated for the virtually static sales trend in the domestic market compared with the previous year.
The operating income of the group as a whole was slightly down in the third quarter of 2015/2016, however, primarily as a result of the unsatisfactory earnings trend in the DIY business in Germany.