Lagardère revenues up 8.5% in 2007

Nicole Mezzasalma

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The company’s travel-retail businesses—including Aelia and Relay—registered accelerated growth in Europe and Asia

The Lagardère Group has announced that full year revenues were up 8.5% to €8.58bn ($12.43bn) in 2007. The company’s retail division Lagardère Services registered a “very good fourth quarter across virtually all activities”, with accelerated growth for travel-retail in Europe and Asia, including travel retailer Aelia. The Relay chain reported higher sales, but the company said growth was held back by the French transport strikes in November. The division’s revenues in the year grew 2.9% to €3.72bn ($5.39bn), compared with €3.61bn ($5.23bn) in 2006.

A company statement said: “We are actively pursuing our strategy of transition towards retail activities in Eastern Europe and Asia (where growth rates and margins are higher than in wholesale), helped by favourable economic conditions.”