Croatia’s Agrokor Group, which recently emerged from extraordinary administration, has said that its Retail and Wholesale segment posted a 3.9% decline in revenue to HRK 29 billion (€3.91 billion) last year, due to ‘new competitor store openings in Serbia and Montenegro’.
At the same time, however, the loss of revenue arising from the closing down of unprofitable Konzum stores was offset by ‘strong like-for-like revenue growth’ of 5.7%, the group said.
Agrokor commenced trading under a new name, Fortenova Group, on 1 April.
Commodity Prices
Elsewhere, the group’s Agriculture segment saw operating revenues decline 18.6% (by HRK 535 million, or €72 million) due to a slowdown in commodity trading.
It also said that the segment saw an ‘extreme drop’ in finisher and semi-hard cheese prices, which also impacted its performance.
Operating profits in the group’s Food segment, meanwhile, were up 3% on the previous year, to HRK 1.2 billion, with the highest operating profit growth seen in the Ice Cream and Frozen Food subsegment, the retailer said.
Total revenue in the Food business was HRK 106 million down on the year before, however, due to a ‘slight decline’ in drinks segment revenue, which had lower distribution volume in the period.
Overall Performance
Overall, Agrokor Group posted operating profit growth of 22% (or HRK 427 million), to HRK 2.4 billion at year-end.
‘Such operating profit growth is the direct result of the restructuring measures taken in all business segments of the Group, both on the revenue and on the cost side,’ it said in a statement. ‘The major driver of the Group's operating profit growth was the Retail and Wholesale segment, ie. the companies Konzum and Mercator.’
The group said that the Extraordinary Administration ‘achieved all the goals that were in its main focus’ during 2018, which included creditor settlements and a stabilisation of the group’s financing.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
