Unlike last year, Stockmann's Crazy Days campaign in the department stores
in Finland was run completely in March, which clearly contracted the
Group's sales in April.
The Group's sales were down 22 per cent, amounting to EUR 111.2 million.
Sales by the Department Store Division decreased by 23 per cent. Sales
were down 37 per cent in Finland and up 18 per cent abroad. Stockmann's
department stores abroad carried out the Crazy Days campaign in April,
like last year. The campaign was highly successful in all market areas.
The new department store in Moscow, opened in February, also contributed
to the sales development.
The reported sales by Hobby Hall were down 26 per cent in April. In April
the company implemented a new information system. This involved changing
the principle of posting sales, so that orders by customers are posted as
sales later than in the previous information system. This change appears
as a one-time reduction of sales in the transition month. The effect of
the change of posting principle is about EUR 5 million in April. Using the
previous posting principle, sales by Hobby Hall in April would have
reached the previous year's level. Reported sales were down 25 per cent in
Finland and 27 per cent abroad.
Sales by Seppälä decreased by 5 per cent. Sales were down 11 per cent in
Finland and up 17 per cent abroad. Sales abroad grew vigorously in
Lithuania and Russia. After the outstanding March, with sales by Seppälä
up 25 per cent, the sales in April were a disappointment. Spring fashions
were largely sold as early as March, as the weather conditions for spring
fashions were favourable.
Sales figures in April
April January-April January-
December
change change
2007 2006 perc. 2007 2006 perc. 2006
Me Me 07/06 Me Me 07/06 Me
Department Store 53.5 84.3 -36.5 265.2 257.9 2.8 832.2
Division, Finland
Department Store 33.6 28.5 17.9 103.2 90.8 13.7 286.9
Division,
international
operations
Department Store 87.2 112.9 -22.8 368.4 348.6 5.7 1 119.0
Division, total
Hobby Hall, Finland 10.5 14.1 -25.3 55.0 57.3 -4.1 167.2
Hobby Hall, 2.2 3.0 -27.2 13.3 12.3 8.5 32.6
international
operations
Hobby Hall, total 12.7 17.1 -25.7 68.3 69.6 -1.9 199.8
Seppälä, Finland 7.9 9.0 -11.4 33.0 34.6 -4.6 123.5
Seppälä, international 3.3 2.8 17.0 12.8 9.5 34.8 34.6
operations
Seppälä, total 11.3 11.8 -4.6 45.9 44.2 3.9 158.1
Real estate + others 0.1 0.1 0.4 0.3 0.3 1.2 0.9
Operations in Finland, 72.1 107.5 -32.9 353.5 350.1 1.0 1 123.7
total*
International 39.1 34.3 13.9 129.4 112.6 14.9 354.1
operations, total
Stockmann total* 111.2 141.8 -21.6 482.9 462.7 4.4 1 477.8
* The figures do not include the sales by the Stockmann Auto division that
was divested at the beginning of March 2006. If the sales by Stockmann
Auto in January-February 2006 are included in the comparison figures, the
change of sales in per cent was:
January-April 2007
change perc.
Operations in Finland, total -16.8
Stockmann total -10.2
STOCKMANN plc
Hannu Penttilä
CEO
DISTRIBUTION
Helsinki Stock Exchange
Principal media