Germany’s Rewe Group has announced that it recorded the highest turnover in its 80-year history during 2010, with its foreign operations greatly contributing to a turnover for its total operations in excess of €53bn, a rise of 4 per cent compared with the year before.
The company’s non-German operations, which include Penny discount stores in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romany, Italy and Austria, achieved a 3.5 per cent increase in turnover to €16.6bn.
Although the German retail sector only grew by just under 2 per cent during the year, the cooperative consortium experienced a 4.2 per cent rise in turnover, to €36.5bn, in its domestic market.
However, Rewe, which operates a range of formats including supermarkets and DIY stores, said that its Penny discount store subsidiary had performed “significantly better internationally than it did in Germany”.
The company said the €10.3bn generated by the discounter in the seven countries where it operates was principally the result of the €3.4bn in turnover - a rise of 3.5 per cent compared with 2009 - produced by its 1,297 non-German outlets.
By contrast, turnover for Penny stores in Germany dropped by 1.2 per cent year-on-year to €6.9bn.
Rewe said the performance of its full-range international stores in Austria, Central and Eastern Europe had also contributed to the group’s positive results, with turnover in the latter markets rising by 3.9 per cent to €2.3bn.
However, in a statement Rewe Group chief executive Alain Caparros warned that, despite a 5 per cent increase in turnover during the first four months of 2011, the year as a whole may “not necessarily be a guaranteed success” for the retailer.
“The fundamentally robust consumer climate definitely contributed to the positive turnover trend in Germany. On the other hand, consumers are sensing very clearly that rising costs, for instance for energy and fuel, are putting a strain on private household budgets,” he said.
Despite this, Mr Caparros said Rewe planned to invest €1.3bn “at home and abroad” during 2011, with a focus on modernising and consolidating its distribution networks and opening more than 350 new stores in Germany and other countries.
