Hornbach Hldg Ag

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. A warm welcome on behalf of the Hornbach Group and the Investor Relations Team for this year's Analyst and Investor Conference in Frankfurt at DZ Bank.

And I would also like to welcome our online participants in the webcast. I would also like to warmly welcome our two CEOs, Mr. Hornbach, the CEO of Hornbach Holding, and Mr. Harsch, CEO of Hornbach Baumarkt and a member of the board of Hornbach Management AG. To begin with, Albrecht Hornbach will talk about the performance of the Hornbach Group. After that, Erich Harsch is going to give us an in-depth insight into Hornbach Baumarkt AG. As always, you will have the possibility to ask questions after the presentation. There will be a roaming microphone in the room, and our online participants will have the possibility of sending us their questions via a chat field. To begin the Q&A round, I will then tell you about the procedure in detail. But before I hand over to the CEOs now, I would like to point out that the conference language in this room is German, and we have provided simultaneous interpretation and an English track for the participants on the webcast. But even if you're listening online, you have the possibility of switching to German. The transcript of this event will be made available on our website in all languages. If you participate in this conference, you agree with this way of data processing. Please also take note of our disclaimer. You can see it here. It applies to both the presentations and the Q&A round. And now it is my pleasure to hand over to Albrecht Hornbach for a first insight. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hornbach Group's Analyst and Investor Conference, both at the DZ Bank and remotely at your screens. We are pleased about your interest in the performance of our company, of course. My colleague Erich Harsch and I are going to give you insights into the key performance indicators and main developments of the 2024-25 financial year. Erich Harsch is going to focus on Hornbach Baumarkt AG, whereas my focus will mainly be on Hornbach Holding and the development of our Baustoffunion. At the end of our presentations, we will be happy to take your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, 2024 was characterized by difficult economic framework conditions. Domestic demand in the EU was soft. Germany's gross domestic product declined by 0.2%. The consequences of the Ukraine war and the high cost of energy have affected and still are affecting many industries. Despite the challenges, at Hornbach, we managed to fare very successfully during the 2024-25 fiscal year, which covered the period from March 1st to February 28th. In the following, I will elaborate on three points which are particularly indicative of our success. Likewise, they illustrate the current business situation of our group of companies to the point. Of course, there are more than just these three points. First, in the 2024-25 fiscal year, the Hornbach Group's net sales were at 6.2 billion euros, which is a 0.6% increase compared to the previous year. Our largest subgroup, Hornbach Baumarkt AG, attain net sales in the amount of 5.85 billion euros, which is 1.2% higher than the previous fiscal year. Our DIY division contributes 94% of the group's consolidated sales.

Our Baumarkt division, that is.