Colruyt in good health

Sales growth at Colruyt reached 16.5 per cent in the 2001/2002 fiscal year, while profits were ahead 12.3 per cent - plenty of reasons to be satisfied with the group's performance, the Belgian retailer's chairman Jeff Colruyt told shareholders last week.

Turnover in a year marked by difficult economic conditions had grown to €2.9 billion, with consolidated group profit rising to €111 million, excluding an one-off gain on the sale of shares.

The retail arm of the Colruyt group was the main driver of growth, Colruyt said, with sales up 12.16 per cent to €2.4 billion and profits up 15.1 per cent to €392 million. Just three new stores were opened during the year, although nine were enlarged or renovated and two separate drinks retailers were incorporated into main stores. More store openings and expansions are planned for next year.

The company also operates 10 Okay discount outlets, and COlruyt said that this format had proved a success and that expansion at a rate of five new stores per year would continue as planned. He added that the group believed it could operate up to 100 Okay outlets in Belgium.

Colruyt also stressed the growing importance of the group's website as a shopping portal, and said that the group had opened its second organic food outlet, Bio-Planet, in May.

Colruyt said that store turnover had risen by 12.5 per cent in the first five months of the current year (April to August), ahead of expectations, and that with this in mind profits for the year as a whole were expected to rise from €111 million to €118 million.