Swedish retailer ICA Gruppen has reported 0.2% year-on-year growth in sales to SEK 11.2 billion (€1.1 billion) in May 2021.
Sales in like-for-like stores declined by 0.1%, the company added.
Its ICA Nära convenience stores arm emerged as the strongest performer, with like-for-like sales growth of 1.4% to SEK 1.7 billion (€170 million).
Maxi ICA Stormarknad generated sales worth SEK 3.7 billion (€370 million), on a par with the previous year’s figure on a like-for-like basis.
ICA Kvantum saw like-for-like sales decline by 0.8% to SEK 2.7 billion (€270 million), while ICA Supermarket registered a 0.4% decline in like-for-like sales to SEK 3.2 billion (€320 million).
Year-To-Date Performance
ICA Gruppen saw 1.1% growth in like-for-like sales between January and May 2021, with sales amounting to SEK 53.3 billion.
ICA Nära and Maxi ICA Stormarknad were the best performers in this period, with both banners registering a 2.3% like-for-like sales growth to SEK 7.9 billion and SEK 17.3 billion, respectively.
Elsewhere, ICA Kvantum saw a 0.4% like-for-like sales growth to €13 billion, while ICA Supermarket reported a 0.3% decline in like-for-like sales to SEK 15.1 billion.
The calendar effect for May is estimated to be -0.4%, the retailer added.
The retail chain reported a profit of SEK 984 million (€97.2 million) in the first quarter of 2021, including the net result of divestments and impairment losses, totalling SEK 26 million. It reported a 2.6% year-on-year growth in store sales, to SEK 31.3 billion (€3.07 billion) excluding VAT, in the three months ended March 2021.
In April, the company's sales declined by 1.7% on a year on year basis with all formats, including Maxi ICA Stormarknad, ICA Kvantum, ICA Supermarket and ICA Nära seeing a drop in sales compared to the same period last year.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Dayeeta Das. For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
