Metro Group has revealed that its earnings, before interest, taxation and special items, came in at €1.07bn for the first nine months of the year (9M) of the year, up from the €915m recorded in the same period last year.
Earnings growth was achieved despite an overall fall in group sales, which dropped 0.6 per cent (or 0.2 per cent in local currency terms) to €47.2bn from €47.5bn in the January-September period of 2010.
'We again significantly increased our earnings despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. This attests to the economic strength of Metro Group,' said chief executive Eckhard Cordes. 'As announced, we can also again report a positive earnings trend at Media-Saturn. The further expansion of the online business will also boot sales.'
Sales through the period were impaired by various trends, the group said, including reluctant consumer spending due to economic climate, the European currency crisis, a trading down to own brands and the curbing of promotional activities at certain stores.
In Germany, sales came down 1.3 per cent during the nine months to €18bn, impacted by the high prior-year basis and store closures, while sales in Western Europe dropped 2.6 per cent to €14.8bn.
Eastern European sales grew slightly by 1 per cent to €12.1bn, Metro said, although this trend was dampened by adverse currency movements, while the Asia/Africa segment remained the region with the strongest sales growth, climbing 11.4 per cent to €2.2bn.
For its full-year outlook, Metro said that it remained confident it would achieve earnings growth of around 10 per cent, although it acknowledged that the target remained uncertain given weakening economic growth.
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