Praktiker's sales in older stores slow down in 2008

Praktiker, the largest DIY store chain on the Romanian market, with 25 operating stores and sales worth almost 300 million euros in 2008, estimates DIY retail opportunities will derive more from investments in household modernisation than in previous years, when the market was driven by basic renovation. “On the Romanian DIY market, demand is shifting from basic renovation to modernisation. (…) The current economic situation suggests that this trend towards increasing the value of existing properties as opposed to constructing new buildings will intensify,” reads Praktiker’s financial report. Additionally, the depreciation of the RON against the euro by around 10% in the 2007-2008 period had a 9 million-euro negative impact on the retailer’s earnings, the financial report also reveals. According to the recently published financial report, organic growth of the Praktiker chain (like-for-like sales) amounted to 6.7% last year against 2007, but the RON’s depreciation led to a decline in the value of sales in euros by 3.4%. This is the first annual sales decline in the chain’s older stores reported by Praktiker Romania.