Mercator Group has posted 4.4% year-on-year revenue growth, to €1.06 billion, in the first half of its financial year.
The company’s retail revenue grew by 7.4%, while it generated normalised EBITDA of €83.4 million, up 1.7% compared to the same period last year.
Its largest subsidiary, Poslovni sistem Mercator, dd, reported 8.2% growth in revenue from its core business and 4.8% growth in sales revenue.
Comparable net profit for the period amounted to €86,000, despite an increase in costs due to increased minimum wages and labour costs, as well as additional costs related to ensuring the safety of customers and employees.
However, Mercator Group ended the period with a negative net profit of €69.2 million as a result of the revaluation of its real estate and impairment of other fixed assets due to the impact of COVID-19.
Impact Of Pandemic
The president of the company’s management board, Tomislav Čizmić, explained, “The success of the core business is, of course, mainly due to timely, responsible, systematic and comprehensive preparation for the crisis and regular, daily monitoring of all key activities [by] the Mercator Group.
“The transfer of experience from Slovenia, which was the first to declare an epidemic, to all other markets in which the group operates, was also crucial.”
Čizmić added that the company was successful in providing a sufficient supply of strategically important items in all markets during the pandemic.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.