Russian supermarket chain Lenta's core profit slumped 62% in the first quarter of 2023 on an annual basis, the retailer noted on Monday, due to weak consumer demand, high inflation and economic uncertainty. The group said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) were 2.6 billion roubles ($31.9 million) during the period, compared to 6.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022, reports Reuters. Overall sales fell 5.8% to 124.6 billion roubles, while like-for-like sales were off by 5.6%. CEO Vladimir Sorokin said the company was not "satisfied" with the results, attributing the weak performance to "the high base effect of the last year and macro trends, which are having a considerable impact on Russian retail as a whole." There was "subdued consumer demand amid rising inflationary pressure and a high degree of uncertainty" across the Russian economy, he said in a statement.
Coop Denmark reported a loss of DKK 628 million (€84.2 million) across its operations in its financial year 2022, which it described as 'the worst year ever' for the group and its independent co-operative associations. However, revenue for the period amounted to DKK 46.9 billion (€6.3 billion) excluding VAT, registering growth of 2% year-on-year, reports ESMmagazine.com. The company stated that 'large investments' in developing the business, and a decline in consumer confidence affected its performance. "It is an unsatisfactory result, which comes after a number of good years. But 2022 was also the year when we accelerated the investments in our strategy, Fremtidens Coop, which will transform Coop and ensure a simple, efficient and winning Coop with fewer but stronger chains," board chairman Lasse Bolander said.
France's Groupe Casino and smaller retailer Teract have said that Groupement Les Mousquetaires, owner of supermarket chain Intermarché, has joined their exclusive tie-up talks. Under the planned deal, Groupement Les Mousquetaires and Casino are considering extending their purchasing alliances by two years until 2028, reports Reuters. They are also considering extending their agreements to the new entity to be formed between Casino Group and Teract, which would be controlled by Casino. The new entity could also transfer to Groupement Les Mousquetaires over several years and at market value, a number of points of sale from Casino France representing a minimum of €1.1 billion of turnover, the statement said. This would enable Intermarché to expand its national network, while also enabling Casino to 'accelerate the geographical refocusing of Casino labels on the target and priority regions', Casino said in a statement.
© 2023 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. For more retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
