“Our growth visions focus on Europe, especially eastern Europe because there is still so much potential there,” he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). “We see double-digit sales growth in Russia and Poland. Some eastern European markets are already profitable, especially Poland,” he said.
He reiterated a pretax profit target for the group of nearly €150 million ($214.5 million) for the year ending Sept. 30, saying while slowing growth remained a problem, consumers appeared to be holding to purchases of beauty products. He also gave a target to raise the number of its German perfume stores to 500 from 440 currently, without giving a time schedule.
Douglas fashion outlets operating under the name Appelrath-Cuepper would be placed “under scrutiny” but were thought able to manage a turnaround, he said. (Reuters)
