Metro Group has announced its preliminary figures for the full-year of 2012, revealing an increase in sales of 1.2 per cent to €66.7bn, or growth of 0.8 per cent in local currency.
Adjusted for the disposal of the Makro UK and Saturn France operations, sales actually climbed by 2.3 per cent, the group noted.
'Despite tougher market conditions, especially in southern Europe, we succeeded in increasing sales in the fourth quarter,' said Olaf Koch, chairman of the management board of Metro AG. Our goal is to continuously become more attractive for our customers and therefore increase our competitiveness. Here, we already made significant progressin 2012, in particular also owing to the extraordinary commitment of our employees in this challenging year.
'The driving forces behind our customer-orientated business realignmenthave been the successful expansion of our delivery and multichannel activities, our product range and price positioning improvements as wellas the further strengthening of our own brands,' he added. 'Upon this foundation, we shall continue to build.'
Koch noted that the group had continued to gain shares in many markets, with the most impressive development being that of Media-Saturn in Germany.
'Investments in the attractiveness of the store-based business together with the consequent development of the internet presence led to the very positivesales momentum in the course of the year,' Koch said of Media-Saturn.
Metro Group confirmed its 2012 EBIT before special items forecast of around €2bn including a successful real estate transaction in France – with the company expecting an improved cash flow and reduction in net debt.
