Portuguese retail and communications group Sonae has posted a consolidated turnover of €5.01 billion in 2015, an approximate 1 per cent growth year-on-year.
The group's food retail arm, Sonae MC, which operates the Continente hypermarket chain, benefited from a store refurbishment initiative, the company said, 'with eight out of 40 hypermarkets partially or totally renewed as of December 2015'.
In addition, Sonae MC 'accelerated its global expansion, signing the first international franchising agreement with the Fathima Group, in order to establish Continente hypermarkets in the United Arab Emirates by 2017'.
"As a multinational present in over 70 countries, Sonae is seriously committed to developing sustainable operations, contributing to create wealth and fostering innovation across such countries," said Ângelo Paupério, Co-CEO of Sonae.
"Over the past year, we invested a total of €300 million, strengthening market penetration where we were already present while also entering new markets, namely through acquisitions, partnerships, franchising and wholesale agreements."
Commenting on the retailer's performance, Barclays said, "The aggressive commercial strategy implemented by Sonae's food retail division (Sonae MC) for the last several quarters finally appears to be gaining traction among Portuguese consumers. Although partly driven by an undemanding basis of comparison and a positive calendar impact, we believe that like-for-like sales at Sonae MC will likely be positive in 1Q, confirming the encouraging performance achieved in 4Q."
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
