Metro Group has announced its results for the fourth quarter (Q4) of the year, with sales dropping 1.3 per cent on the previous year to €19.5bn, the result of a weaker Christmas period.
Sales in Germany fell 0.3 per cent to €7.8bn, the retailer revealed, while Metro also noted declines in Western Europe (down 4.2 per cent to €6bn) and Eastern Europe (down 1 per cent to 4.8bn). However, sales in the group's Asia/Africa markets jumped by 10.8 per cent through the quarter to €0.8bn.
Meanwhile, Metro has also released its preliminary results for the full-year of 2011, with sales in-line with expectations by dropping 0.8 per cent to €66.7bn.
'Despite a good finish, the Christmas business was disappointing overall,' said CEO Olaf Koch. 'Our online business, by contrast, developed gratifyingly. In this important growth segment we made significant progress in all sales divisions.'
German and Western European sales both dropped compared with the prior year, down 1 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively, while Eastern European sales climbed 0.4 per cent and Asia/Africa sales grew 11.3 per cent.
'The past year was strongly impaired by extraordinary developments,' Koch added. 'In particular the sovereign debt crisis, high unemployment rates and austerity programmes in many European countries have resulted in a buying restraint among the customers.'
Metro reiterated its EBIT (earnings before interest and taxation) guidance for 2011, expecting EBIT before special items slightly below the prior-year value of €2.4bn.
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