Essanelle Hair Group publishes nine-month figures

Sales and earnings continue to perform positively

Forecasts for overall year certain to be reached

Düsseldorf, 12 November 2007 – Essanelle Hair Group further improved its sales performance in the third quarter of the current financial year as well. The company’s third-quarter sales rose to Euro 30.8 million, up 5.0% on the equivalent quarter in the previous year. Nine-month sales therefore grew by 5.4% to Euro 90.7 million, compared with Euro 86.0 million in the same period last year.

“We remain highly satisfied with our sales performance and are on target both for the third quarter and for the first nine months,” commented Uwe Grimminger, Chairman of the Management Board of Essanelle Hair Group AG. “If this development continues until Christmas, an important period for our business, then we will also achieve sales growth of at least 5% for the 2007 financial year as a whole.”

In terms of the individual concepts, TOP TEN, still a relatively new brand, substantially increased its sales from Euro 1.2 million to Euro 2.8 million. With growth of 30.3% to Euro 15.9 million, HairExpress also continued to report a very high rate of increase. Super Cut posted sales growth to Euro 14.5 million, up from Euro 13.9 million in the same period in the previous year. Sales at essanelle Ihr Friseur showed a slight decline from Euro 51.7 million to Euro 50.5 million. The Jürgen Tröndle salons generated sales of Euro 3.3 million, compared with Euro 3.5 million in the previous year. Sales at the Beaty Hair Shops, which specialise in selling products exclusive to hairdressers, showed further double-digit growth of around 21% from Euro 3.0 million to Euro 3.6 million.

Earnings performance underlines strength of operating business

The positive performance of the operating business is especially apparent in the company’s key earnings figures. EBITDA rose by 5.3% from Euro 7.5 million to Euro 7.9 million at the end of the first nine months of 2007. At Euro 3.8 million, pre-tax earnings (EBIT) were 3.2% up on the equivalent figure for the previous year.

“All of our key earnings figures at the end of the first nine months of the current year are up on the equivalent figures for the previous year,” added Achim Mansen, CFO of Essanelle Hair Group AG. “We have thus more than compensated for the one-off income of Euro 0.8 million from the sale of mod’s hair in 2006. This shows that our operating business is currently in very good shape. We will therefore exceed our adjusted pre-tax earnings target, amounting to Euro 4.5 million, by around 10-20%.”

Further figures and details will be published in the Interim Report 3/2007 on November 14, 2007

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