Swedish retailer ICA has posted a 3.2% decrease in like-for-like sales in April, reporting sales of SEK 9.34 billion for the month.
Sales in the four-month period January to April 2018 were up 2.6% to SEK 37.2 billion, however.
ICA Gruppen estimates the calendar effect for April to be -5.4%, owing to the earlier Easter this year.
All of the group’s store banners posted like-for-like declines in the period; Maxi ICA Stormarknad was down 4.9% to SEK 2.86 billion; ICA Kvantum fell 2.7% to SEK 2.28 billion; ICA Supermarket saw a 3.3% decline to SEK 2.8 billion and ICA Nära saw a 0.5% decline to SEK 1.4 billion.
At 30 April 2018, the number of ICA stores was 1,284. Store sales for May will be published on 11 June, the retailer said.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
