Friday June 25th 2021
Group increases annual forecast
Hornbach relies on the do-it-yourself trend
Wood is currently in short supply. Hornbach is also feeling this. After good business, the hardware store giant is still expecting a plus at the end of the year. Group boss Dohm is convinced that people have developed a new awareness of their own home in the corona pandemic.
Spurred on by sustained high demand, the hardware store group Hornbach Holding is somewhat more optimistic about the current financial year 2021/22. The management board is now expecting a slight increase in revenue and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) of between 290 million and 326 million euros, as the company in Bornheim in Rhineland-Palatinate announced. In the best case scenario, this would mean that the result would be at the record level of the previous financial year. So far, the management had assumed that sales would be roughly at the previous year’s level.
The EBIT should also be below the record value of last year, but significantly exceed the result from 2019/20, it said at the end of May. The group now expects that, among other things, the foreseeable high demand for products for home improvement and renovation as well as building products will ensure an increase in sales of around one to five percent.
CFO Karin Dohm sees a sustained do-it-yourself trend: “Even in the past quarter, when more people went out again and the corona measures were relaxed, we are still seeing great demand for do-it-yourself projects and corresponding advice”, she said. Demand in the Hornbach stores has increased in all areas. While in the colder months it was more paint and wallpaper, pools, grills and other products for the garden are currently in demand.
Meanwhile, Dohm calmed down with a view to certain raw materials such as wood, the prices of which had recently risen due to a shortage. The chief financial officer promised to be able to continue to make the materials available to customers unchanged – provided there were no unexpected incidents such as the blockade on the Suez Canal. She refused to pass on higher raw material prices to customers.
Across the group, sales rose in the first quarter of the business year (end of May) by 6.4 percent to 1.68 billion euros. The building materials division in particular grew with a good fifth, which, however, only accounts for a small part of total revenues. The online business also flourished. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) in the spring quarter, which is important for Hornbach, nevertheless fell by 2.2 percent to 169.1 million euros.
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