Essanelle Hair Group presents half-year figures

Sales remain strong, growing by +5.6%

Earnings performance clearly exceeds expectations

Düsseldorf, August 14, 2007 – The Essanelle Hair Group was able to continue the positive performance of the first three months in the second quarter of 2007. Between April and June, the company’s sales revenues were up by 5.0% on the same period of the previous year to EUR 30.5 million. Total sales for the first six months increased by 5.6% to EUR 59.9 million from the previous year’s EUR 56.7 million.

Uwe Grimminger, CEO of Essanelle Hair Group AG, said: “Our sales revenues continue to develop as planned. The July figures point to further accelerated growth, suggesting that we will clearly exceed the previous year’s figures. With 23 new salons opened in the first six months, we expect to reach our target of 50 salon openings in the full year.”

A breakdown of the company’s individual concepts shows that HairExpress and TOP TEN reported the strongest sales growth in percentage terms. HairExpress boosted its sales by 38.2% from EUR 7.4 million to EUR 10.2 million, while TOP TEN more than doubled its sales from EUR 0.7 million to EUR 1.7 million. Super Cut reported an increase from EUR 9.3 million to EUR 9.6 million. Sales at essanelle – Ihr Friseur declined moderately from EUR 34.4 million to EUR 33.8 million. Jürgen Tröndle’s salons achieved sales of EUR 2.2 million, compared to EUR 2.4 million in the previous year. The Beauty Hair Shops, which sell exclusive salon products, increased their revenues by 18.3% from EUR 2.0 million to EUR 2.4 million.

Earnings already above the previous year’s level

The earnings figures reflect the positive operating performance particularly well. Although the Essanelle Hair Group generated a non-recurrent income of EUR 0.8 million from the sale of the mod’s hair franchise rights in the previous year, all earnings figures for the first six months of 2007 are above the previous year’s level. EBITDA rose by 6.7% from EUR 4.8 million to EUR 5.2 million, while earnings before taxes (EBT) improved by 4.9% to EUR 2.4 million.

“We did not expect to be able to compensate for this non-recurrent income after only six months and to be up on the previous year’s figures already at the half-year stage. This means that we will certainly exceed our target of an adjusted pre-tax profit of EUR 4.5 million - which will lay the foundation for the distribution of a dividend”, said Achim Mansen, CFO of Essanelle Hair Group AG.

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