Hornbach suffers sales downturn

In the first quarter of 2023 (1 March to 31 May), the Hornbach DIY store group recorded sales of 1 667.6 mio euros with its European stores, equivalent to a decline of 2.2 per cent compared with the previous year. The Hornbach Group as a whole also suffered a decline of 2.2 per cent to 1 773 mio euros. The reason for this, according to the company, was the cold, rainy weather across the European continent, which adversely impacted the sales trend in March and April in particular. Like-for-like sales net of currency items in the DIY store division fell by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2023/24 (2022/23: +5.3 per cent).

In its core market of Germany, the net sales of Hornbach Baumarkt AG fell in the first quarter by 5.2 per cent to 808.5 mio euros (2022/23: 853.2 mio euros). Sales on a comparable store area declined by 5.7 per cent (2022/23: +4.4 per cent).

Sales outside Germany increased by 0.8 per cent to 859.2 mio euros (2022/23: 852.1 mio euros). The share of foreign business of sub-group Hornbach Baumarkt AG rose from 50 per cent to 51.5 per cent. Like-for-like sales net of currency items fell in the other European countries by 0.8 per cent (2022/23: +6.2 per cent).

Online sales (including click & collect) accounted for 13.3 per cent of the overall sales of Hornbach Baumarkt AG in the first quarter of 2023/24 (2022/23: 15.3 per cent), thus remaining above the level before the pandemic. Compared with the same quarter in the previous year, online sales fell in the first quarter of 2023/24 by 18.1 per cent to 221 mio euros.

For the current financial year 2023/24, Hornbach expects sales to be around the level of the previous year (6 263 mio euros) along with an adjusted EBIT, which could be around 5 to 15 per cent below the level of fiscal 2022/23 (290.1 mio euros).