Kirkel – 6 February 2007. Praktiker’s new Easy-to-Shop store concept has stood the test. Following a six-month test phase in six pilot stores the first interim balance shows: Easy-to-Shop attracts more customers, increases sales and leads to higher earnings. Therefore, its general rollout is now planned to start six months ahead of the original schedule. The first 12 stores will be adapted to the Easy-to-Shop system in early March. A total of 67 locations are to be converted in the course of 2007. By the end of the decade, more than 200 Praktiker outlets will be operated in this successful format.

Praktiker has set up Easy-to-Shop in order to facilitate and accelerate the customer’s purchase decisions. The assortment has been deliberately optimized, the number of stock keeping units has been reduced by 20 percent. A clearly structured store layout, plausible navigation and a largely self-explanatory merchandize presentation also sets the benchmark in terms of logistics and clarity. Customers find the products they are looking for much easier and faster. The Easy-to-Shop concept also takes a center stage in the context of the group’s future two-brand strategy: it raises the profile of Praktiker as a discount-oriented, price-aggressive brand. This contrasts with the newly acquired premium brand Max Bahr, which is characterized by a wider and deeper assortment as well as competence in customer advice and service.

“Our expectations regarding this new concept have been fully met“, stressed the CEO of Praktiker Bau- und Heimwerkermärkte Holding AG, Wolfgang Werner. During the months of September to December, i.e. after the end of the marketing activities that typically accompany a store reopening, sales had climbed by ten per cent over the same period last year. “This experience is as gratifying as it is encouraging. Therefore we have decided to optimize, extend and step up our original plans for the rollout of Easy-to-Shop.“

What had been tested in six Praktiker stores in five German states since August 1, 2006 shall now be rolled out fast. While the original plan foresaw the conversion of a total of 50 stores in 2007, 67 stores are now to be converted in six waves. A similar scope of conversions is planned for the years 2008 and 2009. At the end of the decade, more than 200 Praktiker stores will offer their customers a better shopping experience thanks to the Easy-to-Shop principle. Werner: “This is equivalent to around 80 percent of our store network in Germany. The positive experience in the pilot stores has encouraged us to roll out the concept as fast and extensively as possible. Easy-to-Shop is exactly what we need for the future of the Praktiker brand“.

As the pilot stores have shown, Easy-to-Shop attracts more customers to the stores and also offers additional incentives to buy. Around one third of the additional sales in the pilot stores are attributable to an increased customer frequency, two thirds to the higher average sales slip. In combination with the higher efficiency in merchandize management achieved under the concept, this also results in an appreciably improved earnings situation in these stores. “Thus, Easy-to-Shop does not only benefit the customers but also Praktiker“, Werner said. “On average, the conversion of a store costs around € 400,000. These expenses should pay back within a period of about two years“.

During the first wave of the conversion plan, the following stores are scheduled to reopen under the Easy-to-Shop format on 12 March 2007: Chemnitz, Leipzig, Gotha, Bayreuth, Alzey, Nuremberg, Frankenthal, Krefeld-Oppum, Bergheim, Wesel, Bochum and Memmingen.