Germany’s Metro AG has reported a 1.7% increase in sales in its Real hypermarket business for the first half of the year, with the division posting sales of €3.77 billion for the period.
The group said that Real saw a 3.9% increase in sales in the second quarter, which was largely due to the shift in Easter business.
EBITDA at the division was €136 million for the half, up from €88 million for the same period the previous year – a period that included significant restructuring measures.
Real’s online sales also continued to develop “very positively”, Metro said, posting an increase of 37% in the first half, to account for around 2% of the market.
Group Sales
Overall, Metro AG posted a 1.3% increase in like-for-like sales, of €18.56 billion, for the first half. Reported sales were down by 0.3%.
EBITDA excluding earnings contributions from real-estate transactions was up 2.6%, to €761 million.
Metro Wholesale saw a 1.2% increase in like-for-like sales, with Germany seeing a 2.6% increase and Western Europe posting a 0.3% increase overall, also driven by gains in France and Portugal.
In Russia, however, the wholesale business saw an 8.8% decline in like-for-like sales, or -9.6% in local currency.
'Positive Developments'
“We further increased like-for-like sales at Metro Wholesale in the second quarter of financial year 2017/18, and we saw positive developments at Real,” said Olaf Koch, chairman of the management board at Metro.
“We have also achieved further dynamic growth in the delivery and online business,” Koch added.
Koch said, however, that business development in Russia and negative currency effects have impacted on the group’s sales and earnings.
“By introducing a new pricing policy, intensifying commercial initiatives, and enhancing support for independent traders in the last quarter, we have taken clear steps to restore growth to our Russian business. We are also confident that we will now be able to pay competitive compensation to new hires at Real from summer onwards, as scheduled,” he said.
Metro has revised its full-year forecast downwards, with the group anticipating a growth rate of minimum 0.5% for the full year, with Metro Russia expected to be “considerably below” the previous year and Real posting a “slight improvement”.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
