The Swedish retail and wholesale group Axfood reported consolidated net sales amounting to SEK 10,639 million (€1,106 million), an increase of 3.2%, and operating profit of SEK 397 million (€41 million), corresponding to an operating margin of 3.7% for this year's Q1.
Net profit for the period was SEK 309 million (€32 million), and earnings per share were SEK 1.47.
Axfood posted its Q1 results in a busy quarter where it completed the acquisition of Matse Holding AB and received approval for its acquisition of discounter Eurocash from the Swedish Competition Authority.
Acquisitions
Axfood completed the offer to acquire all of the shares in Matse Holding AB on 31 January. Axfood’s holding as per 31 March was more than 99% of the shares.
The Swedish Competition Authority approved the acquisition of Eurocash Food AB, and the company is thereby consolidated in the Axfood Group as from 1 April 2017. Approval from the EU Competition Authority is still pending for Norgesgruppen’s share of the acquisition (49%).
"During the quarter we increased our e-commerce initiatives. The integration of mat.se is being carried out with full strength, and more customers can shop online from Willys and Hemköp. This gives us favourable conditions to strengthen our position in the rapidly growing online segment," said Axfood's new president and CEO, Klas Balkow.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Gavin Ryan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
