GERMANY – Sales of the German kitchen furniture industry fell 7.8% to € 407.2 million in May, following strong growth of 20.3% in April.

In May of last year, kitchen furniture sales had increased by 12.1%.

According to VdDK (German Kitchen Furniture Industry Association) monthly statistics, the drop in the current period is mainly due to the weak domestic market, which saw revenues decline by 10.5% to € 237.8 million.

Foreign sales fell less sharply by 3.6% to € 169.4 million. In the euro area export sales reached € 127.9 million, down 3.7%. In may the export ratio increased by 1.8 percentage points to 41.6% due to the stronger decline in domestic business.

Consolidated kitchen furniture industry sales over the first five months of the year, increased by 3.0% to € 2.018 billion. The declines in March (-6.6%) and May were more than offset by increases in January (+4.5%), February (+10.0%) and April.

Domestic sales in the five-month period grew 0.7% reaching € 1.207 billion compared to previous year. Foreign sales were up by 6.6% to € 811.3 million. Exports to the euro zone generated € 616.8 million, up 7.3%.