Hornbach reports best sales in decades

Extraordinarily positive sales and results figures for the past financial year, but also for the first months of the new financial year, have been announced by Hornbach at its annual balance press conference. The DIY stores in the German group achieved an increase in sales of 8.1 per cent to EUR 4.428 bn in financial year 2020/21 (ending 29 February 2020). Growth abroad was even in double-digit figures at 10.4 per cent. The stores in Germany gained 6.0 per cent.
The like-for-like sales increase net of currency effects amounted to 7.7, in Germany 6.0 per cent as well as 8.9 per cent abroad. Nationally, this is the highest rise since financial year 1993/94 and also internationally since financial year 2000/01.
The press conference took place - due to the coronavirus - exclusively as online stream. It was also a premiere of the new Hornbach DIY boss Erich Harsch: "The first five months at Hornbach were hugely different than I imagined". He said that the restrictions due to the coronavirus shutdown had been increasingly overcompensated for by the open locations and the online shops. In March and April of this year, he continued, sales rose by 9 per cent, online even by 80 per cent. In May too, demand had remained unbroken so that "the demand dynamics in the first quarter of 2020/2021 will lie significantly over the previous year's results" said Harsch.
Despite the good development in the first quarter, Hornbach expressed slight caution for the current financial year, saying that no-one knows what is going to happen. Hornbach also announced a new location concept which is expected to be launched in Cologne and Berlin this year still. The trading house didn't want to say any more on the subject.