Russian supermarket

Magnit has announced that year-on-year net profit increased by 46.4 per cent during 2009, up to US$275.2m (€204m) from US$187.9m (€139m) in 2008.

According to the group, the improved figure was a result of extensive cost cutting at the company's grocery outlets, introduced to help the group ride out the global economic downturn.

Profit was also aided by the expansion of Magnit's store network, up by 646 new stores on the previous 12 months with selling space increasing by 28.7 per cent.

Overall group sales remained flat at US$5.35bn (€4bn), while like-for-like sales rose 4.14 per cent and customer traffic fell slightly by 1.52 per cent.