Polish grocery giant Dino Polska has posted a 23% year-on-year growth in revenue to PLN 1.56 billion (€360 million) in the first quarter of its financial year.
The group's EBITDA increased by 26.2% to PLN 132.2 million (€30.77 million), with the EBITDA margin growing by 0.3 percentage points.
Its like-for-like sales grew by 5% during the quarter when compared with data from the same period in 2018.
'Unfavourable Calendar Effect'
President of the management board of Dino Polska S.A., Szymon Piduch, said, "We produced these results in spite of the unfavourable calendar effect, i.e. the shift in the timing of the Easter Holiday to Q2 2019 and the 8% decline year-on-year in the number of trading days."
In the first quarter, the company spent more than PLN 240 million (€55.8 million) on investments to further its network rollout.
It has estimated an investment of PLN 850 million (€197.77 million) during the course of the year.
A substantial portion of its capital expenditures will be used to expand the store network and logistics functions, Dino officials said.
Outlook
Piduch added, "In subsequent quarters we expect to accelerate the pace of growth. The market is conducive, including Poles’ upbeat consumer sentiment ensuing from the robust macroeconomic situation, steadily rising income and low unemployment."
Dino opened 33 new stores in the first quarter which took its store count to 1,009 with a total selling space of 389,000 square meters.
In the first quarter of 2018, the retailer had 800 stores and a total sales area of 305,000 square metres.
The growth in the network’s business size is an outcome of the retail group's persistence in executing its strategy, resulting in continuous and rapid organic growth in store numbers.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
