Hornbach Hldg Ag

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the conference call regarding the second quarter first half year results 2021-2022 of Hornbach Group. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to Axel Müller.

Thank you very much. Good morning. Today morning at 7 o'clock we published, I would say, a fine set of figures on the second quarter and the first half. And we are sitting together with CFO Karin Dohn, CEO Albrecht Hornbach, Investor Relations Manager Arne Spies and myself, Head of Investor Relations. By way of introduction, Albrecht Hornbach will give you a first sight on the last six months of the current fiscal year. And Karin will follow and give you a detailed insight in the key data and most important facts of the first half. The first step is, Mr. Hornbach, I will forward the word to you.

Okay, thank you. Albrecht Hornbach speaking now. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A warm welcome to this analyst's call from me as well. Today we will be presenting our business results for the first six months of the 2021-22 financial year and pointing out some highlights of our business performance. I would like to start by focusing on a couple of key factors. My board colleague, Karin Dohm, will then comment on details of our performance and of our outlook. Despite severe lockdown restrictions, the first six months of the current 2021-2022 financial year were very successful for us. That confirms us that we are on the right track with our finely calibrated focus on customers. I would like to illustrate that with just a couple of key points. First, the pandemic has significantly changed what customers need. People are attaching greater importance to security and physical proximity. The homes are very important to them and they are prepared to invest in them. A shift in people's priorities towards security, their direct surroundings, their homes. That is what we have learned from the pandemic and it is a lesson that will not be forgotten so quickly. Second, people's need for security is also reflected in their shopping habits. Fewer contact, higher average spend, more click and collect, more online. All that is another lesson of the pandemic. Third, these two changes, greater willingness to invest in home improvement projects and more safety and convenience in shopping, both play to Hornbach's strengths. Hornbach offers customers everything they need to meet their requirements. Project expertise and suitable advice the right product range with large stock available, and not least, the right prices. That is only possible because of the close links we have built between our top performing webshop and our generously proportioned stores, all with the help of our logistics and interconnected retail, and all powered by the inventory management capacity of a closed merchandising system. These factors enable Tombaugh to gain substantial market share in the countries where it operates in the current 2021-2022 year under report as well. The extraordinary sales growth generated by the whole of the do-it-yourself sector in the 2020, the year of the pandemic, is often reported in the media and interpreted by many sector experts as an exceptional situation. Some people have clearly misintegrated the trend towards do-it-yourself as a kind of occupational therapy that is limited to periods of lockdown, times when there is nothing else to do. And the press release published by our sector association after the first half of the 2021 calendar year will have confirmed many people in that impression. The association reported a 15.9% downturn in like-for-like sales in the German do-it-yourself store sector. It was said that, and I quote, protracted lockdown restrictions and unfavorable weather seriously thwarted the first half of the year. On-bus performance in the same period was dramatically better. In the first six months of the calendar year, it outperformed the sector in Germany by more than 13 percentage points. Particularly during the months of lockdown, our interconnected retail meant we could offset most of the sales lost due to stores remaining closed. Not only that, since the restrictions were lifted, our sales performance has also remained ahead of the sector average. Our CFO, Karin Dohn, will now give you details of our half-year results.