German wholesaler Metro has posted a 2.4% growth in like-for-like sales in its financial year 2018/19, in line with its guidance range of 1% - 3%.
The company's total sales increased by 1.5% to €29.9 billion during the fiscal year.
It also reported strong fourth-quarter results with like-for-like sales up 2.5%, and a total sales growth of 3.9% to €7.6 billion.
'Fully Focused Wholesaler'
Olaf Koch, chairman of the management board of Metro AG, said, "In the past financial year, we accelerated our sales growth as a result of our transformation into a fully focused wholesaler.
"Eastern Europe, excluding Russia, and Asia again saw strong growth. Western Europe, with the exception of Germany, has improved compared to the previous year."
Regional Performance
In Germany, the company saw a marginal 0.3% growth in like-for-like sales, while in the rest of Western Europe like-for-like sales grew by 1.3%, driven by strong perfromance in France, Spain, and Portugal.
In Eastern Europe, barring Russia, sales grew 3.4% to €7.2 billion, while Asia saw a sales growth of 5.7% to €4.5 billion.
Growth Drivers
The wholesaler attributed its growth to strong performance in its HoReCa and trader channels.
The company's delivery business also grew successfully during the fiscal year, the company said.
Metro's recently-launched B2B online marketplace, MetroMarkets, increased its offering to include around 65,000 non-food items from 70 partners within a span of one month.
Outlook
Confirming the company's EBITDA outlook for the financial year 2018/19, Koch added, "After the sale of the majority stake in Metro China, our core customer groups HoReCa and trader will account for 70%1 of sales. We are very satisfied with this strategic progress."
© 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.
