Slovenian retailer Mercator Group posted a 3.1% year-on-year decline in sales revenue to €499.7 million in the first quarter of its financial year.
According to the company, its performance was affected by the entry of new players in the market, particularly in Serbia.
In October of 2018, Lidl launched operations in Serbia with 16 stores in Belgrade and other cities.
Slovenia retained its place as the Group’s most important market, generating 57% of the total revenue.
EBIT amounted to €9.6 million (+5.6% year-on-year), although the data was not entirely comparable due to the introduction of the IFRS accounting standard.
Capex amounted to €3.5 million, of which 70.5% was invested in Slovenia.
Other Investments
Mercator launched the call for bids for its new logistics and distribution centre in Ljubljana during the quarter.
The process is scheduled to be close by the end of June 2019 with the selection of the building designer for the new facility.
During the period between January to March 2019, Mercator completed the divestment of 10 shopping malls in Slovenia and launched five new outlets - three in Slovenia and one each in Serbia and Montenegro.
Presently, the company has 467 retail outlets in Slovenia, 322 in Serbia, 114 in Montenegro, and 77 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
© 2019 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.
