Rewe Group has pointed to specially selected acquisitions and international expansion as the main drivers behind the strong set of provisional yearly results that it released this week.
Despite the difficulties brought about by the global economic downturn, the Germany-based retailer reported figures showing an increase in turnover of 2.7 per cent to €50.9bn for 2009.
In Germany, overall turnover was raised by 2.6 per cent, reaching €34.6bn, while foreign business grew by 2.9 per cent to €16.3bn.
Rewe's core group of companies (excluding independent retailers) saw turnover lifted to €37.4bn, an increase of 4.8 per cent, the provisional figures stated.
Store numbers across Europe increased by 5 per cent to a total of 15,453, with the number of locations in Germany up 5.6 per cent 10,885.
The healthy overall development of the core companies as well as the group as a whole is mainly due to our organic growth and carefully considered acquisitions in Germany and abroad along with investments totalling around €1.4bn,' said Rewe CEO Alain Caparros.
'We are very satisfied with the developments,' he added. 'Rewe Group's earnings (EBITDA) are expected to exceed the previous year's record figures of €708m.'
