- Essanelle Hair Group presents nine-month figures
- Nine-month sales up by 5.6%
- Earnings before taxes up by a moderate 1.1%
- essanelle Ihr Friseur brand to be relaunched

Düsseldorf, 10 November 2008 – The positive sales and earnings performance of Essanelle Hair Group AG continued as of the nine-month stage. Third-quarter sales increased by 4.5% to EUR 32.2 million. Sales in the first nine months of the year amounted to EUR 95.8 million, up 5.6% on the previous year’s EUR 90.7 million.

“We are satisfied with our sales performance in the year to date even though we noticed some signs of spending restraint among consumers. But the start to the fourth quarter was very good, which is why we expect a strong Christmas business. This will also be supported by the Germany-wide relaunch of our core brand, essanelle Ihr Friseur, in November,“ said Achim Mansen, CEO of the Essanelle Hair Group AG:

The positive performance of the individual salon concepts continues. TOP TEN and HairExpress showed the strongest percentage growth. While TOP TEN reported a 53.2% increase in sales to EUR 4.4 million (previous year: EUR 2.8 million), sales of HairExpress rose by 24.1% to EUR 19.7 million (previous year: EUR 15.9 million). Super Cut reported nine-month sales of EUR 15.3 million, up 5.5% on the previous year’s EUR 14.5 million. essanelle Ihr Friseur generated EUR 49.0 million in sales, down 3.1% on the previous year’s EUR 50.5 million. Sales of JT by essanelle amounted to EUR 3.1 million, compared to EUR 3.3 million in 2007. The Beauty Hair Shops, which specialise in the sale of salon products, boosted their sales by 18.2% to EUR 4.3 million (previous year: EUR 3.6 million).

Earnings figures remain sound

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 2.0% to EUR 8.1 million, while earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by a moderate 1.1% to EUR 3.8 million at the nine-month stage. Due to higher taxes, earnings per share declined from the previous year’s EUR 0.50 to EUR 0.45.

“Although the economic outlook is becoming bleaker, we are confident that we will reach the targets we have set ourselves for 2008. At the same time, we will take a strategic step forward by relaunching the essanelle Ihr Friseur brand. We also believe that we will achieve the planned increase of roughly 10% in earnings before taxes, although we have invested between EUR 1.0 and 1.5 million in the relaunch. This will require a successful performance in the fourth quarter.“

Kontakt:
Haubrok Investor Relations
Michael Müller, Linh Chung,
+49-21 56-49 65 195
M.Mueller@haubrok.de