Russian retailer Magnit has released its financial statement for the first quarter of 2011, with the group showing a drop in net income of 7.5 per cent to R1.8bn (€43m) from the R1.9bn (€46m) recorded last year.
Revenue for the three-month period increased by 53 per cent from R49bn (€1.2bn) to R75bn (€1.9bn), the result of increased selling space and a 20 per cent increase in like-for-like sales.
'We liked our sales growth rate in the first quarter and did not transfer additional expenditures through increases of fuel costs and social tax to the customer, which resulted in lower EBITDA,' said CEO Sergey Galitskiy. 'But from the second quarter we have started to gradually transfer increased costs to the customer, and we are confident in fulfilling EBITDA margin and sales plans provided earlier.'
Through the first quarter, Magnit added 134 new stores and increased its selling space by 36 per cent when compared with the same period of 2010.
