Hornbach defies the financial crisis

The DIY store and garden centre operator Hornbach has defied the financial and economic crisis. In the third quarter of the financial year, the parent company of the Hornbach Group increased sales by 6.1 per cent to € 688.5 mio. On a like-for-like basis, thus excluding new and extended stores, sales growth was 1.5 per cent. In the first nine months of the financial year (March to November 2008), sales by Hornbach Holding AG grew by 6.5 per cent to € 2.214 bn. Sales by the subgroup Hornbach-Baumarkt AG, which accounts for 94 per cent of the group’s total sales, climbed by 6.6 per cent in the third quarter and by 6.6 per cent in the first nine months to € 2.083 bn. The earnings of the group as a whole for the first nine months rose by as much as 65 per cent compared with the previous year to € 164.5 mio. Third-quarter earnings rose by 67.9 per cent to € 22.6 mio.