GERMANY - The German kitchen furniture industry increased sales by 17.6% in October to € 483.6 million, after low increases of 2.6% and 2.2%, respectively, in August and September.

According to monthly statistics produced the VdDK (Association of the German Kitchen Furniture Industry), this was the second highest increase of the year to date.

A higher increase of 20.3% was achieved in April. In July, kitchen manufacturing in Germany reported growth of 17.1%, a similar level as in October.

The domestic market (+18.0% to € 291.1 million) and exports (+17.0% to € 192.5 million) contributed to growth in October. Exports to the Eurozone increased by 21.2% to € 148.1 million.

In the first ten months, consolidated sales of the German kitchen furniture industry increased by 6.2% to € 4.1 billion. Of this amount, € 2.4 billion was attributable to Germany, 4.8% more than in the previous year.

Exports rose by 8.4% to € 1.67 billion. Sales to the euro-zone countries increased by an average of 11% to € 1.27 billion over the ten month period and the export quota reached 40.6%.