In Germany, we achieved modest growth despite the difficult market situation and can report an encouraging level of success in a number of areas, including reverse vending systems and automated checkouts.
Net sales in Europe fell sharply on account of the crisis-related downturn in investment activity by retailers. Particularly hard hit was our sluggish EPOS business, with a good deal of replacement investment being postponed, in particular. By contrast, our automated checkout solutions business delivered some positive results, especially in Western Europe, and we succeeded in entering the market in other European countries such as Lithuania and Latvia. Sales of our automated cash processing solutions were equally positive, e.g., in Sweden, Belgium and Norway. In Eastern Europe, where the impact of the economic crisis was particularly severe, investment by retailers collapsed, strongly undermining our EPOS business. Unlike in other regions, very little could be done here to make up for this downturn through sales of new automated solutions.
EPOS sales were also down in the Asia/Pacific/Africa region, although here we nevertheless recorded a pleasing increase in revenue. Software/Professional Services (Glossary) performed particularly well in China and India.
Overall, our Retail business in the Americas was down. We improved our position in the Canadian market by means of an acquisition involving the takeover of a majority share in Connections Canada Inc. (CCi), which specializes in information technology for retail firms.
