Musgrave Group has posted losses after tax of €13 million for full-year 2014, which is down on the €113 million loss the retailer posted in 2013.
For the year to 27 December 2014, the Irish retail group reported sales of €4.6 billion and operating profit before exceptional items of €66 million.
After exceptional items of €70 million and property profits of €11 million, the group repaired a loss of €13 million. The retailer had net cash of €110 million at year-end.
Musgrave said that its SuperValu operation reported sales of €2.6 billion, which was ‘in line with last year’. Centra saw its sales grow by 3%, while its Musgrave Marketplace wholesale operation grew by 8%.
Marketplace was boosted by Musgrave’s acquisition of the Allied Foods logistics business towards the end of the financial year, a move which Chris Martin, Musgrave chief executive, said has given the retailer “far greater control over its supply chain than it would have ever had before.”
Musgrave’s annual results include the period in which the Superquinn stores were rebranded as SuperValu, in February of last year.
Martin told Checkout magazine that the combined business is now "properly integrated. The sales have taken longer then where we want to get them to but the good news is, we are now seeing much better results coming through in our refurbished stores and that's pointing very much towards the kind of work that we've been doing on food leadership.”
Martin added that he expects Musgrave Group to return to growth this year.
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
