Slovenian retailer Mercator has announced that it expects its profit levels in 2012 to follow a similar pattern to 2011, when they declined 21.6 per cent to €23.8m.
For the upcoming 12 months, the grocery retailer said that it forecasts net profit will drop 34 per cent to €15.7m.
Sales last year actually rose 5.4 per cent year-on-year to €2.9bn, while the forecast for 2012 is sales growth of 3.3 per cent to €3bn.
'After a difficult third quarter of 2011, business conditions worsened further in the fourth quarter,' the group said in a statement. 'Forecasts show that such conditions will also continue also in 2012 in the whole of southeastern Europe.'
