Russian retailer Lenta has posted a 2.9% year-on-year growth in like-for-like retail sales in the first half of its financial year.
The company saw a 3.1% growth in total sales to RUB 199.2 billion in the first six months from RUB 193.2 billion in the same period in 2018.
Its like-for-like traffic grew 2.1%, like-for-like ticket saw a 0.7% increase during the same period.
Total sales in the second quarter was up 0.4% to RUB 100.2 billion from RUB 99.8 billion a year ago, with retail sales growing 4.7% to RUB 97.8 billion from RUB 93.4 billion in 2018.
However, Lenta's wholesale division witnessed a decline of 62.4% during the quarter ended 30 June.
The retailer giant's like-for-like retail sales grew 0.8%, excluding VAT, when compared with the same period in 2018.
'Tough Competition'
Lenta chief executive, Herman Tinga, described the quarterly results as "healthy retail sales growth" and added, "The results mainly reflect a deteriorated economic situation for our consumers, negative impact of calendar effects in the second quarter and overall tough competition in the retail industry."
He attributed the 0.2% decline in like-for-like retail sale in its hypermarkets in the quarter to stagnating household disposable income and a shift in Easter holidays.
Other Highlights
During the quarter, Severgroup LLC acquired 34.45% and 7.47% of Lenta’s issued and outstanding voting shares from TPG and EBRD respectively.
The retailer launched three new outlets during this period, taking the total store count to 377, comprising 246 hypermarkets and 131 supermarkets.
Its total selling space increased 5% from a year earlier to 1,472,937 square metres.
Outlook
Tinga said, "Amid pressure from the market environment, we remain focused on improving the operational efficiency of our existing business, while we keep working on initiatives that should drive sales and deliver continued growth this year."
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
