Croatian food producer and retailer Fortenova Grupa, formerly known as Agrokor, has reported lower revenue and operating profit last year, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business.
Fortenova said in a statement its consolidated 2020 revenues amounted to 21 billion kuna (€2.78 billion), or 11.7% lower than a year before, while operating profit (EBITDA) reached 1.3 billion kuna (€170 million), or 30.1% below the 2019 level.
COVID Impact
“The COVID-19 pandemic left a trail on everything, including the operating results of our companies," commented Fabris Peruško, chief executive of Fortenova Group. "It had the strongest negative effect on those companies that are closely related to the tourist industry and the HoReCa channel.
"Nevertheless, our companies successfully met and even outperformed their 2020 plans, which had been corrected last year in view of the pandemic and envisaged lower results than those in 2019."
Fortenova, one of the biggest companies in southeastern Europe, was saved from bankruptcy under its former Agrokor guise, in a restructuring deal with local and foreign creditors in mid-2018, which included a change of the name and the ownership structure. Sberbank now controls some 44%.
Frozen Foods Sale
Earlier this year, Fortenova sold its frozen food business and took back control over Slovenia's biggest food retail chain Mercator. Mercator results will be integrated in Fortenova's results this year.
'Divestment of frozen food business and the integration of Mercator will positively affect our 2021 results. We are also hoping that this year's tourist season will be better than last year's,' the group said.
As well as Mercator, Fortenova also owns the biggest food retail chain in Croatia – Konzum – and is present in several Balkan countries.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. For more Retail stories, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
