Sales growth

The year 2004 was a successful one for the Norwegian DIY retailers and builders’ merchants: the sector recorded an increase of 10.3 per cent overall. Building materials and DIY products worth around € 4.9 bn were sold by the stores. Neumann Bygg notched up a five per cent increase in sales, Lovenskiold 10 per cent and Byggmakker 13.6 per cent. But even though sales saw positive development last year, progress in terms of the number of DIY outlets was relatively poor and even negative in some cases. One exception here is provided by the Fargerike Norge voluntary group, which at the end of 2004 numbered twelve stores more than in 2003. NKL increased its number of stores by two, and Maxbo and Clas Ohlson expanded by one each. Reductions to their total number of outlets were experienced by Byggmakker (–5) and Montér (–3) as well as Byggern’n and Neumann Bygg (–1 each). The Finnish Kesko group has signalled an interest in acquiring Norgros with its Byggmakker retail format.