Slovenian retailer Mercator Group posted a €15.3-million net profit for the first half of 2015, compared to a €13.7-million loss over the same period last year.
Meanwhile, revenue dropped year on year to €1.3 billion. Due to the changes in the revenue profile following the consolidation of trade operations within the Agrokor Group, the data is not entirely comparable to last year.
Revenue structure by markets has changed considerably from the previous year. In Serbia, revenue increased 70.8 per cent as the retail units of the company Idea were transferred to Mercator – S. In Croatia (by 75.9 per cent) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (84.2 per cent), on the other hand, there was a substantial drop in revenue due to the shift of Mercator's retail activities to Konzum. In Slovenia, revenue dropped slightly, while in Montenegro, revenue was higher than in the same period last year.
Mercator generated the highest share of its total revenue in its FMCG segment – 86.6 per cent – while the remaining 13.4 per cent was generated in the specialised trade segments.
Mercator allocated €26.5 million for investment (or 2.5 times more than in last year's equivalent period), with 70 per cent of total investment going to refurbish the retail network in Slovenia. In the first six months of 2015, 15 new retail units were opened in Montenegro, five in Serbia, four in Slovenia, two in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one in Croatia.
At the end of H1 2015, Mercator had a total of 1,439 stores, of which 1,208 were under management and 231 franchise stores. In terms of geographical distribution, 868 were located in Slovenia (60 per cent of the total), 376 in Serbia, 103 in Montenegro, 61 in Croatia and 25 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the markets of Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo, Mercator is present with six franchise stores of the Intersport format.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
