GERMANY - Following growth of less than 2 percent in January (+1.8 percent) and February (+1.2 percent), the domestic sales of the German kitchen furniture industry grew by 9.8 percent to € 280.7 million in March.

However, according to the VdDK (The Association of the German Kitchen Furniture Industry) , sales abroad were only slightly above the previous year’s figure at € 173.8 million. Here, the German kitchen manufacturers performed better in the markets outside the euro area than in the currency area, where sales fell by 4.1 percent to € 128.2 million. Total sales for March rose 6.0 percent to € 454.5 million.

In the first three months of 2020 consolidated sales increased by 4.4 percent to € 1.287 billion. In the three month period, activities in Germany (+4.4 percent to € 772.2 million) and overall export business (+4.5 percent to € 514.8 million) had similar growth.

In the eurozone, the increase was lower at 2.5 percent to € 395.2 million.

According to Jan Kurth, Managing Director of the Association of the German Furniture Industry , this development is particularly gratifying because it is based on the already high previous year’s figure.