Metro bucks the trend with sales rise
units helped German retail company Metro to a 4 per cent increase
in sales for 2002 - a good performance in light of declining
turnover in the German retail sector as a whole.
German retail group Metro has reported a 4 per cent increase in sales for 2002 to €51.5 billion as it restructuring and expansion programme continued to bear fruit. Net profits were up by 11.8 per cent to €502 million during the same period.
The company said that the increase in sales had come at a time when most German retailers were suffering from declining turnover, and as a result Metro said it had outperformed most of its competitors. EBITDA went up by 1.4 per cent to €2.42 billion, while EBIT increased by 3.1 per cent to €1.17 billion.
"We fully met our forecast for 2002, almost covered our cost of capital and successfully continued our course of profitable growth and our international expansion," said the chairman and CEO of Metro, Dr. Hans-Joachim Körber.
He added that international sales had grown substantially during the year (8.4 per cent), while the majority of total group sales were generated by excellent performances from the Metro Cash & Carry and Media Markt/Saturn units.
Metro Cash & Carry, the most international and the best-selling sales division of the Metro Group, continued its successful development of the past few years, increasing sales by 5.5 per cent to €24.0 billion. Excluding the impact of exchange rates in Turkey and Romania, sales went up by 6.4 per cent. The foreign share in total sales of the division increased from 76.1 per cent to 77.0 per cent.
The Real hypermarket unit outperformed its competition in 2002, the company claimed, increasing its market share despite a decline in sales of 2.1 per cent to €8.2 billion caused by currency effects in Poland and Turkey. In Germany, sales declined by 1.2 per cent.
The Extra convenience store arm generated sales of €2.8 billion in 2002, down 4.9 per cent on the previous year as a result of difficult trading conditions and fierce competition in the German market.
Electronic goods retailer Media Markt/Saturn saw its turnover rise 14.9 per cent to €9.6 billion, with a 9.6 per cent rise in the declining German market and increases in excess of 25 per cent in some foreign markets. The Praktiker DIY chain increased sales by 1.6 per cent to €2.6 billion, while the Kaufhof department stores registered a minor decline in sales (1.8 per cent to €3.9 billion) but still outperformed the competition.
