East German Companies Buck Trend

Despite an overall economic slump, East Germany's top 100 companies managed to expand and increase sales last year, according to a newspaper survey. The conservative daily Die Welt reported Monday that companies in East Germany increased sales, on average, by 10.1 percent over the past year. This despite a GDP in the nine former East German states that dropped 0.2 percent. The firms managed to buck the downward trend by acquiring and expanding in a year when many German companies sold off parts or cut their workforce. The champagne-producer Rottkäppchen, the market-leader in Germany, was dubbed the most dynamic company in East Germany after acquiring labels MM, Mumm and Jules Mumm and increasing their sales by 117 percent. East german chemical and pharmaceutical companies proved to be the big winners overall, boasting double digit sales growth rates and the addition of hundreds of jobs.