- Group revenues up 9.4% to € 42.6 million
- eCommerce revenues up 8.6% to € 38.5 million
- EBIT improves to € 0.5 million (Q1 2007: € 0.3 million)
- 123,000 new and 61,000 repeat customers
Delticom AG (German Securities Code (WKN) 514680, ISIN DE0005146807, stock exchange symbol DEX), Europe's leading tyre retailer, today published its full report for the first three months of 2008. During this period, the company increased its revenues by around 9.4% year-on-year to € 42.6 million (Q1 07: € 38.9 million). EBIT improved from € 0.25 million in Q1 07 to € 0.51 million. At the same time, consolidated net income rose to € 0.48 million (previous year: € 0.37 million).
In tyre retailing, the first quarter is traditionally the weakest in sales. This held true in the first quarter of 2008 with unseasonably cool March weather causing many drivers in Germany and other European countries to put off the purchase of summer tyres until April. Despite this, however, Delticom enjoyed positive overall growth compared to last year's very successful first quarter. Revenues in the eCommerce division were up from € 35.5 million to € 38.5 million or 8.6%. In the Wholesale division growth was up 17.8% with revenues of € 4.1 million (Q1 2007: € 3.5 million).
The key factor driving this growth was the continued positive development of Delticom's customer base. In 2008 123,000 new customers chose to make a purchase through one of Delticom's online shops while during the same period 61,000 repeat customers once again shopped with the firm. These figures underline the attractiveness of Delticom's shops and the products offered. Experts are forecasting that in the future more and more tyres will be bought online. The most recent ADAC report "Reifenmonitor 2008" only underscores the positive prognosis: According to this study, 6.1% of 18 to 39 year-olds surveyed stated that they had made their last tyre purchased online (2007: 4.8%). 28.1% (2007: 26.4%) of this younger and Internet-savvy target group intend to make future tyre purchases online.
On the German home market, Delticom saw relatively moderate first quarter growth of 5.4% to € 14.9 million. This is contrasted by stronger revenues increases achieved in a number of foreign markets: With revenues up 13.1% to € 23.0 million the other EU-countries had the highest rates of growth, with the remaining foreign markets showing growth of 5.5% to € 4.7 million.
"We are pleased with the results achieved during the first quarter of this fiscal year," commented Frank Schuhardt, Delticom AG's CFO. "Of course we would have liked the winter to be cold and snowy with March being warmer. Drivers needed fewer winter tyres - and then they saw no reason to change to summer tyres. However, the summer season got off to a good start in April, and the current sales figures are encouraging. At the same time, the first quarter results indicate that our internationalization strategy is indeed a good way to achieve both consistent, sustainable growth and insulate ourselves against the seasonal fluctuations in individual markets."