Hire purchase, 60% of Altex sales

The hire purchase “frenzy” that boosted the sales of the home appliance retailers at the end of last year has maintained through this first half, as well. “The beginning of the year was a little better than expected in terms of sales, given that the sales in instalments have come to account for 50%,” Dan Ostahie, Altex retail chain general manager said. He added the pace had increased over the last two or three months. “Whereas we had over 100% sales growth in Q1 compared with Q1, 2002, the growth was even higher in April and May, when the hire purchase contributed over 60% to the total sales,” Ostahie said. ZF