Sales showing strong growth

The Canadian Rona group reports retail sales of CDN $ 2.912 bn (€ 2.139 bn) for the 2005 financial year. This amounts to growth of 12.5 per cent over the previous year, which is mainly attributable to the acquisition of the Totem stores. Same-store growth came to 1.0 per cent. EBITDA recorded an increase of 21.6 per cent to CDN $ 267.7 mio (€ 196.64 mio) and represents 9.2 per cent of retail turnover; this compares with the previous year's 8.5 per cent. Noted among the reasons for the increase are synergies resulting from the takeover and the success of the group's marketing and own-label programmes.