Slovenia’s Mercator Group has reported a 5.4% annual increase in retail revenue in the first nine months of 2018, to €1.2 billion.
In the same period, EBITDA at the business reached €86.8 million (+24.7%), while EBIT more than doubled (+157%) to €35.8 million. The company ended the nine month period with a net profit of €8.9 million, compared to a net loss of €10.5 million a year earlier.
According to the retailer, the positive performance is due to the implementation of a new strategy, new store concepts, store refurbishments, and improved competitiveness of the retailer’s services.
In Slovenia (56.3% of total revenue), which remains the most important market for Mercator Group, retail revenue rose by 0.5% year-on-year.
Serbia was the Group’s second biggest market (32.2%), followed by Montenegro (5.7%). The re-establishment of retail operations in the market of Bosnia and Herzegovina (accounting for 4.8% of total revenue) in September 2017 also had a positive effect on Mercator Group revenue.
Mercator Group's net financial debt as at 30 September 2017 amounted to €738.3 million (an 11.2% decline on the previous year).
New Openings
In the period January to September 2018, Mercator opened six new stores in Slovenia, two in Serbia and five in Montenegro, amounting to a total 6,923 square metres of new gross retail area. In addition, 88 units (57 in Slovenia) were refurbished or had their layout updated (including in Bosnia and Herzegovina).
In October, the company signed an €116.6 million agreement with Supernova on the sale of 10 shopping centres in Slovenia.
Mercator Group ended the period with 66 hypermarkets, 246 supermarkets, 669 neighbourhood stores and 21 cash & carry units.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
