An eventful year comes to another successful end

Thanks to the exceptional sales activities of its specialist retailers in their respective areas the centrally calculated buying volume of EUROBAUSTOFF Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Bad Nauheim increased to 5.49 billion euros in 2014 (+2.27%). Hereby the external sales in the various partner outlets increased to 13.3 billion euros. With this, the cooperation is developing its leading role amongst Europe’s associations of mid-sized specialist retailers for building materials, wood and tiles.

2014 was an eventful year for both the building industry and EUROBAUSTOFF. After an exceptionally good first quarter and a good second, everything spoke in favour of an excellent annual result. However, the second half-year was unable to keep up with what the first had promised. “We were unable to repeat the monthly turnover of 2013 in the second half-year of 2014,” said Ulrich Wolf, Chairman of the Board of EUROBAUSTOFF at a press conference during the BAU 2015 in Munich. “It was the result of a combination of several factors which occurred July/August onwards: the crises in the Near East, the risk of terrorist attacks in Europe, economic problems in China and economic sanctions against Russia. In a global economy, such factors also have an impact on the domestic market.”

In addition to this many building companies and trade businesses had worked flat out for more than 13 months without a winter break and had to have a “holiday”. Less helpful was also the response of many bulk building materials suppliers who compensated for lost terrain with price reductions. This, in turn, reduced the buying volume in EUROBAUSTOFF even further and decreased the marginal return of the specialist retailers.

The wholesale figures which covered approximately 80% of the cooperation’s buying volume in 2014, also partly reflect this. The ranges Raw Building Materials/Wall Construction Materials, Plaster/Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems and Insulating Materials completed the year negatively and, in doing so, reduced the overall result in wholesale to +0.34%. Pleasing, though, was the development in Garden/Landscaping Construction (+5.48%), Building Elements (+5.07 %) and in the still relatively new product area of Building Metals (+5.76%).

The goods divisions Retail Trade, Wood and Tiles achieved an above average result. Retail trade (+10.1 %) noted the highest growth in the product areas Decorative Wood, Machines, Wood in the Garden and Iron Goods. Here the exhibition and sales concepts of retail trade can be clearly noticed.

Wood (excluding wood in the garden, floor/walls/ceilings and building elements out of wood) generated a plus of 15.3 %. The strongest product areas here are Sawn Wood and Timber Products.

The cooperation’s Tiles division has been strongly positioned for already several years and continues to grow despite the current industry trend. Modern exhibitions, an excellent sales policy and the exclusive Cerabella own brand have helped make this possible. In 2014 this generated a plus of 6.34 % in the cooperation.

“All this success must, of course, also be seen against the background of the departure of our second biggest partner, the ZEB Paderborn,” says Ulrich Wolf. “This turnover had to be compensated and we succeeded in this.” On 1.1.2015 EUROBAUSTOFF had 485 (486) partners with a total of 1,484 (1,442) sites in eight European countries. After 45 BayWa sites were taken over by several EUROBAUSTOFF partners already last year, a further four BayWa franchise partners with 19 sites joined EUROBAUSTOFF at the start of the year. Furthermore, the cooperation is now also strengthened by BetoHolz GmbH in Klötze with a branch in Malchow as well as Friede Bauzentrum GmbH in Bardowick with a branch in Ebstorf which joined the cooperation on 1. January.

With retroactive effect from 1. January, the EUROBAUSTOFF partner Frettholt in Bünde is also taking over the majority of the Bussemas & Pollmeier Group with sites in Verl, Gütersloh (2x), Harsewinkel and Bielefeld.

“New partners, internal growth and real turnover increase are also part of our 2015 turnover planning and we predict a growth of two to three percent,” says the Board Chairman. “We are relying on the strength of the entire German economy and the potential of our specialist retailers in Europe.”

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