Thanks to the flourishing online business, the parent company of Media Markt and Saturn was able to increase its sales in the past financial year despite lockdown – and is planning further growth.
Thanks to its booming online business, electronics retailer Ceconomy with its Saturn and Media Markt chains has so far been able to get through the pandemic well.
“The past financial year was a real acid test for our company. We passed this endurance test, ”said CEO Karsten Wildberger at the presentation of the balance sheet on Tuesday in Cologne.
Despite the month-long corona-related closure of numerous stores, sales of the electronics retailer rose in the 2020/21 financial year, currency and portfolio-adjusted, by 3.8 percent to 21.4 billion euros in the end of September. The online business was the biggest growth driver. With an increase in sales of 65 percent, it was able to more than compensate for the pandemic-related decline in stationary business.
Sales doubled
The Group’s online sales have more than doubled within two years. It is now 6.9 billion euros. This means that e-commerce accounts for a third of all business. “Today we are the third largest online provider in Germany,” said Wildberger.
The manager expects further growth impulses from the initiated expansion of the online offer into a marketplace, which other retailers can also use to offer their goods. There are currently more than 400 dealers with around 300,000 products on the platform.
In the stationary business with its more than 1000 stores, the development was mixed. In the important German home market in particular, the group suffered from the months-long lockdown and had to cope with a drop in sales. Things went better in countries like Italy, Spain and Turkey.
Noticeable bottlenecks
Adjusted operating profit remained at the previous year’s level at 237 million euros in the past financial year. The bottom line was that the group posted a surplus of 222 million euros after write-downs on the French subsidiary Fnac Darty had resulted in a deficit of 237 million euros in the previous year.
During the current Christmas business, the electronics giant is also feeling the bottlenecks in the supply chains, despite its efforts to replenish its inventory in good time. Gaps in product availability could not have been completely avoided in some areas such as telecommunications, said Wildberger. According to him, a lot more of some products could have been sold if they had been available. “Last week we got 20,000 Playstations. They were sold through in a few hours, ”reported the manager.
Source From: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
