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New board of the German Timber Trade Federation (from left to right): Martin Geiger (Alois Geiger Sons), Matthias Roeren (treasurer, Holz-Roeren), Philipp Zumsteg (vice-chairman, Carl Götz), Thomas Goebel (CEO of the German Timber Trade Federation, Berlin), Andreas Cordes (Cordes), Jürgen Klatt (chairman, Friedrich Klatt), Kai Cording (Theodor Schumacher Sons), Hartmut Gross (Holz-Gross), Maximilian Habisreutinger (Franz Habisreutinger), Jens Blume (Blume Retailers for Timber and Construction Elements) © German Timber Trade Federation

Garden timber sales grow +10% in September

Article by Dinah Urban, translated by Susanne Höfler | 06.11.2015 - 10:02
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New board of the German Timber Trade Federation (from left to right): Martin Geiger (Alois Geiger Sons), Matthias Roeren (treasurer, Holz-Roeren), Philipp Zumsteg (vice-chairman, Carl Götz), Thomas Goebel (CEO of the German Timber Trade Federation, Berlin), Andreas Cordes (Cordes), Jürgen Klatt (chairman, Friedrich Klatt), Kai Cording (Theodor Schumacher Sons), Hartmut Gross (Holz-Gross), Maximilian Habisreutinger (Franz Habisreutinger), Jens Blume (Blume Retailers for Timber and Construction Elements) © German Timber Trade Federation

Sales of German timber merchants rose by 0.4% in the first nine months. Top sales items were construction elements (+5%), floorings (+5%) and planed goods (+2%), as the German Timber Trade Federation (GD Holz) reported on the timber industry day in Cologne on the 3rd of November. Furthermore, the results of the monthly intercompany comparison showed that sales of derived timber products stagnated, and sales even dropped for lumber (-5%) and timber in the garden (-5%) in the annual comparison.

September alone brought a turnover gain of 4.3%, with an increase of 10% for the garden product range. The federation and two thirds of interviewed enterprises share "cautious optimism" with regards to further development. 2015 is expected to close with a growth in the low single-digit range.