Do-it-yourself retailer Praktiker’ sales in Romania went down by 17 percent in the third quarter of this year to EUR 47.4 million, while in RON the sales decreased by 16.8 percent, according to the company.

In the first nine months, the company saw its sales in Romania down 24.4 percent, to EUR 116.1 million.

“Business continued to decline in the international segment in the third quarter. The decrease was even slightly higher than in the first six months, some of which, however, being due to a negative development of exchange rates. A slight improvement was observed in Romania. However, this was also due to a base effect as value added tax in Romania had been increased by five percentage points at the start of the third quarter of 2010, leading to dampened consumer spending,” according to the according to the group’s most recent financial report.

See the entire report here (PDF version).

The company’ sales in Romania in the first half of the year went down by 28.8 percent, to EUR 68.7 million, as demand for do-it-yourself products has decreased, while Praktiker’ second quarter sales were down by 28.3 percent, to EUR 42.9 million.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Praktiker)