German retailer Metro Group has announced that its results dipped slightly in 2011 as it faced up to what it described as 'extraordinary economic developments', with the sovereign debt crisis, high unemployment rates and austerity programmes in many European countries resulting in a buying constraint on consumers.
According to the group, group sales dropped by 0.8 per cent for the year to reach €66.7bn, although this was a drop of just 0.2 per cent in local currency terms.
Earnings before interest, taxation and special items came in at €2.37bn, down 1.8 per cent on a year-on-year basis, meeting expectations.
'The macroeconomic conditions in many countries have worsened noticeablycompared to 2010,' said Olaf Koch, chairman of the management board at Metro. 'This notwithstanding, we succeeded in maintaining group sales and EBIT before special items almost at the same levels as last year.'
By segment, German sales dropped by 1 per cent to €25.9bn, affected by store disposals at Metro Cash & Carry and Real, while sales in western Europe fell 3.1 per cent to €20.9bn.
In Eastern Europe, sales went up by 0.4 per cent to €16.9bn, while in Asia/Africa,sales continued to grow 'very dynamically', climbing 11.2 per cent to €3bn.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2012, Metro said that the ongoing difficult economic situation and slowing price increases are expected to have a negative impact on sales in 2012, although 'all sales divisions are taking a number of steps designed to boost sales'. For that reason, the group is forecasting an increase in sales in 2012.
Earnings could also be hit by the economic uncertainty, although Metro expects EBIT before special items to 'roughly match the previous year's result'.
In addition, the retailer has said that Joel Saveuse, a member of the management board and CEO of the Real Group, is to leave the company at the end of March. Olaf Koch will take responsibility for Real.
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