"Praktiker Group, one of the leading do-it-yourself centre operators in Europe, continues its expansion the Central and Eastern European region and plans to open another two or three stores in Hungary. The DIY chain is set to step into the Ukrainian market next week and its next target on the agenda is Albania.On 29 November, Paraktiker is to open its first large home improvement and DIY store with a selling space of around 8,400 square meters Donezk, Ukraine. This will be the 85th international store and Ukraine is the 8th and so far largest European country into which Praktiker expands.
In 2008, further outlets are scheduled to open in this country, including in Kiev and Lvov.
Despite a booming home building and renovation industry no other international DIY store operator has set foot in this country yet.
Germany's Praktiker has 17 stores in Hungary and plans to open two or three more.
Despite the negative impact of the government's austerity measures, which considerably dented consumers' propensity to buy and their wallets have also become very light, Praktiker company still expects to achieve its 2007 objectives in Hungary.
The company indents to battle the unfavourable environment by introducing new services, reshuffling the line of products offered and set more favourable prices.
Praktiker sees potentials in the segment of household commodities and construction materials, and so it plans to focus in large cities in the countryside.
In addition to the store in Donezk, Praktiker also plans to open another three locations in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece in the last two months of the current year.
With 15 new stores and planned investments totalling around EUR 100 million, the international expansion of the Praktiker Group reached a new record high in 2007.
For the next few years, CEO Wolfgang Werner announced the opening of at least 20 new locations each across Europe in the framework of the company's accelerated internationalisation strategy.
Praktiker has been present in Hungary since 1998 and currently has 1,400 employees and offers 55,000 kinds of products.
Its Hungarian units sprawl on 143.000 square metres and it is the only DIY chain in Hungary that operates a webshop.
The acquisition of Max Bahr and the accelerated international expansion resulted in a distinct growth of Praktiker's store portfolio and headcount. The group's selling space as per 30 September 2007 rose to around 2.68 million square meters from 1.99 million as compared to the same date in 2006. The store portfolio consists of 422 stores (2006: 335), of which 81 are located abroad (2006: 66). 76 of the German locations are operated under the Max Bahr brand.
The headcount of the Praktiker Group developed accordingly. As of 30 September 2007, the group had a total workforce of 22,289 employees (full-time equivalents), 28.1% more than on the same date one year earlier (17,405). The number of employees in Germany now totals 13,708 (2006: 10,515) and that of the eight foreign subsidiaries 8,581 (2006: 6,890).
Praktiker Group upped its net profit in Q3 2007 by 9.7% yr/yr to EUR 35.4 m, and its sales boomed by 27.1% yr/yr to EUR 1,036.5 m.
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Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
23.11.2007