Italy’s Gruppo Esselunga has posted sales of €7.75 billion in 2017, which is a 3.1% increase on the retailer's 2016 figures.
Total customers exceeded 5.6 million, seeing growth of 5% and due to the further development of the network.
Esselunga's new Prenestino store in Rome brought in over 100,000 new customers.
Esselunga opened the Rome Prenestino, Novara Veveri, Verona Fiera and Verona Bergamo Celadina stores in 2018, while the Verona Corso Milano store was closed due to renovation and expansion.
E-Commerce Growth
Esselunga has also seen progress on the e-commerce front, with sales exceeding €180 million.
During the year, the retailer inaugurated a new click and collect channel, called Clicca e Vai, enabling customers to collect their purchases at its Varedo store.
Adjusted gross operating margin at the group amounted to €647.9 million (+8.4% on 2016), adjusted operating profit was €420.6 million (+5.4%), while adjusted net income reached €305.8 million (+3.9%).
Esselunga issued two fixed rate bonds (Eurobonds) in October for €1 billion euro, with maturities of six and 10 years, to finance the purchase of Villata Partecipazioni, with nominal interest rates of 0.875% and 1.875%, respectively. Requests from investors were equal to nine times the offer.
In 2017, Esselunga obtained two investment grade ratings: a Baa2 rating from Moody's and BBB- from S&P.
Top Employer
Last month, Esselunga received the Top Employer Italia 2018 certification out of a total of 90 companies.
The certification recognizes the standard of working conditions guaranteed by the company to its employees, the identification and development of employees at all company levels, and the constant search for improvement of organisational processes.
Esselunga operates more than 150 outlets across Italy, in the Lombardy, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Veneto, Lazio and Liguria regions, comprising both supermarkets and superstores.
It also boasts three distribution centres, located in Limito di Pioltello (Milan), Biandrate (Novara) and in Sesto Fiorentino (Florence).
According to local media reports, more new store openings are planned for 2018, including at Torino Corso Bramante, Montecattini Terme and Brescia Triumplina.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
