International growth of Douglas perfumeries boosts H1 profit

08 May '08

3 min read

During the first half of its 2007/08 fiscal year (October 1, 2007 - March 31, 2008), the net sales of the DOUGLAS Group rose by 6.1 percent to more than 1.7 billion EUR over the previous year.

Portfolio-adjusted (exclusive of previous year's sales from René Kern and Pohland - both of which have since then been divested), the DOUGLAS Group posted sales growth of 9.9 percent.

Like-for-like sales - which only reflect those locations operating during the current and previous year's period - were 2.7 percent higher than in the previous year. In Germany, sales increased by 1.9 percent in the first half year.

Like-for-like, this translates into a sales gain of 1.0 percent for the DOUGLAS Group. As a result, the sales development on a like-for-like basis significantly improved during the course of the second quarter versus a slight minus reported at the end of the first quarter due to the prior year's artificially high figure for an impending increase of the German VAT.

The foreign subsidiaries contributed to the DOUGLAS Group's performance. Foreign sales were up 15.2 percent in the first half year primarily thanks to the powerful international growth of the Douglas perfumeries and the positive development of the Thalia bookstores in Austria.

Like-for-like, the increase outside of Germany was 6.0 percent. The earlier Easter business in this fiscal year also enhanced the solid performance of the DOUGLAS Group, the sales of which were posted in full to the second quarter (January to March).

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