Swedish retailer ICA has posted a 1.0% increase in like-for-like sales in September 2018, with total sales rising by 1.6%.
Sales totalled SEK 9.3 billion (€890 million) for the month, with sales in the period from January to September totalling SEK 88.1 billion (€8.43 billion) – an increase of 3.6% on the previous year.
Across The Portfolio
In terms of the group's banners, its ICA Nära convenience chain saw the highest like-for-like sales growth in the period, of 3.3%, to SEK 1.41 billion (€0.13 billion), followed by ICA Kvantum, which posted 1.9% like-for-like sales growth, to SEK 2.23 billion (€0.21 billion).
The group's Maxi ICA Stormarknad (+0.1%) and ICA Supermarket (+0.1%) banners posted flat like-for-like sales growth, however, with the former recording sales of SEK 2.84 billion (€0.27 billion) for the month, and the latter posting sales of SEK 2.8 billion (€0.27 billion).
ICA Gruppen estimates the calendar effect for September to be -1.6%. As of 30 September, the group operated a total of 1,284 outlets.
Second-Quarter Performance
In August, Per Strömberg, the chief executive of ICA, described the group's second-quarter earnings as "unsatisfactory", after the group posted EBITDA of SEK 1.43 billion (€140 million), down from SEK 1.65 billion (€0.16 billion) in the same period the previous year.
Strömberg cited volume variations and increased transport costs as reasons for its lower earnings, as well as the roll-out of an e-commerce warehouse in Stockholm.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
