Hornbach : maintains its growth course

Consolidated sales up 5.7% in first half to Euro 2.3 billion / DIY stores and garden centers with like-for-like growth of 4.0% / Disproportionate growth in earnings: Operating earnings up 15.2% to Euro 175.8 million / Full-year forecast for 2017/2018 confirmed.

Neustadt a. d. Weinstrasse, September 28, 2017. The Hornbach Holding AG & Co. KGaA Group (Hornbach Group) upheld its growth course in the first half of 2017/2018. Consolidated sales for the period from March 1 to August 31, 2017 grew by 5.7% to Euro 2,310.3 million (2016/2017: Euro 2,186.7 million). Consolidated operating earnings (EBIT) increased by 15.2% to Euro 175.8 million (2016/2017: Euro 152.5 million). EBIT at HORNBACH Baumarkt AG, the largest operating subgroup with 156 DIY retail stores across Europe, improved by 18.5% to Euro 141.6 million (2016/2017: Euro 119.5 million). Hornbach expects to incur increasing expenses relating among other factors to the Group's digitization in the second half of the financial year. The Board of Management has therefore confirmed the full-year sales and earnings forecast for 2017/2018.

Net sales at the Hornbach Baumarkt AG subgroup (DIY retail) grew by 3.9% to Euro 1,042.7 million in the second quarter of 2017/2018 (2016/2017: Euro 1,003.6 million) and by 5.4% to Euro 2,173.1 million in the first half of 2017/2018 (2016/2017: Euro 2,062.5 million). Like-for-like sales net of currency items rose by 2.6% in the second quarter and by 4.0% in the first half.

Retail activities outside Germany once again contributed the greatest growth momentum in the DIY store business. While net sales in Germany rose by 0.3% in the second quarter and by 2.0% in the first half, the growth rates in other European countries came to 8.3% to 9.5%. As a result, the international share of the subgroup's first-half sales increased from 44.6% to 46.3%.

E-commerce playing an ever more significant role in the DIY retail business

Over the 2017/2018 financial year to date, sales at Hornbach Baumarkt AG have continued to outperform the DIY sector average, in most cases significantly so, in the European countries in which the subgroup operates. Albrecht Hornbach, Chairman of the Board of Management of Hornbach Management AG, attributes this consistent outperformance of the market not only to the company's successfully stationary retail business. The Group's online activities are also making an ever greater contribution to its sales performance. Commenting at the company's half-year press conference in Frankfurt, Albrecht Hornbach underlined: 'E-commerce is an integral part of our retail format. At Hornbach, online and offline are two sides of the same coin. Since launching our online business in Germany in 2010, we have invested nearly a quarter of a billion euros in sustainably digitizing our business model. We can only afford this because the Hornbach Group has the necessary earnings strength'. He referred to the digital transformation of retail as one of the core future challenges facing the sector.

As of August 31, 2017, Hornbach operated online stores in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the Czech Republic. Hornbach's online store in Slovakia went online in September 2017 and is due to be followed in the second half of the 2017/2018 financial year by the two remaining online stores, namely in Sweden and Romania. Remarked Albrecht Hornbach: 'The internet enables us to attract new customers to Hornbach and inspire them with our brand even outside the catchment areas of our stationary DIY stores.'

Hornbach Baustoff Union GmbH increases first-half sales by more than 10%

The HORNBACH Baustoff Union GmbH (HBU) subgroup, which focuses on the needs of professional customers in the main and secondary construction trades, as well as on private construction clients, reported further strong sales growth. Having risen by 7.5% to Euro 71.4 million in the second quarter, the subgroup's sales for the first half of 2017/2018 grew by 10.4% to Euro 136.1 million. HBU reported some of its strongest rates of growth in its traditional 'Construction', 'Roof', and 'Garden' product ranges. 'Particularly given the healthy state of the construction sector, we are now reaping the benefits from our sales team consistently working the regional builders' merchant market by drawing on its direct contacts to customers at their buildings sites', added Albrecht Hornbach.

Hornbach Group increases first-half EBIT by 15.2% to Euro 175.8 million

Following disproportionate earnings growth in the second quarter, the Hornbach Group increased its first-half consolidated operating earnings (EBIT) by 15.2% to Euro 175.8 million (2016/2017: Euro 152.5 million). This was mainly driven by like-for-like sales growth at the DIY stores at the Hornbach Baumarkt AG subgroup, sales growth at the Hornbach Baustoff Union GmbH subgroup, a slightly higher gross margin, and improved cost ratios at the Group. In the second half of the year, the Hornbach Group expects to incur higher expenses relating among other factors to the digitization of its retail business. Against this backdrop, the respective Boards of Management have confirmed the full-year sales and earnings forecasts of the Hornbach Group and the Hornbach Baumarkt AG subgroup for the 2017/2018 financial year.

Key Figures of the Hornbach Group for the 2nd Quarter and the 1st Half at a Glance

Rounding up or down may lead to discrepancies between percentages and totals. Calculation of percentage figures based on Euro 000s.

Excluding currency items

Including minority interests pursuant to IFRS

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