Many fans have stocked up on new large-screen TVs for the European Football Championship. Specialist retailer Expert is also benefiting from this. However, the company does not see this as an end to the consumer slump.
The electronics retailer Expert is profiting from the European Football Championship. Because many fans have been stocking up on new TV sets for the tournament, which has been running since mid-June, sales of flat-screen TVs in particular have recently increased significantly, said Expert boss Stefan Müller at the presentation of the company’s financial statements in Langenhagen near Hanover. In view of the continued reluctance of many customers to buy, this is a positive signal.
Overall, Expert sold 71 percent more televisions in June than in the same month in 2023, said Müller. The most significant jump was in the two weeks immediately before the start of the tournament, when more than twice as many televisions were sold as a year earlier. And if Germany wins the quarter-final against Spain on Friday, “that could certainly give another push.”
Customers also paid more for the devices. On average, Expert customers paid 1,040 euros per device in the first week of June, almost 300 euros more than in the same calendar week last year. Large LCD monitors with a screen diagonal of 80 inches or more were particularly in demand, with almost four times as many of these being sold in June as a year ago. Sales of OLED screens measuring 77 inches or more also almost tripled.
No sustainable turnaround
After the recent weak business, Expert was able to increase its external sales by 2.4 percent in May and June. However, Müller does not see this as a lasting end to the reluctance to buy. “The majority of purchases are just being brought forward. This is not a reversal of the trend,” said the Expert boss. Because: “Anyone who buys a new TV now will not buy one for Christmas.”
Overall, Müller expects only a small increase in external sales in the current 2024/25 financial year, which runs until the end of March 2025. In view of the uncertain economic situation, customers are continuing to hold back on new purchases. There are signs of improvement here, however. “Nevertheless, we do not expect a trend reversal and economic recovery until the second half of 2025 at the earliest.”
Slump in consumption causes sales to shrink
In the last financial year, the internal sales that the group made with its affiliated dealers shrank by 0.3 percent to 2.23 billion euros. “This is a satisfactory result given the tense environment,” says Müller. In the end business with customers, revenues even shrank by 2.7 percent. Computers and IT in particular sold poorly. However, this means that the group performed better than the market.
Expert is a cooperation of legally independent specialist retailers who jointly purchase their goods through the association. At the end of the day, there were 186 partners with a total of 385 locations. Expert operates 67 of these itself, the rest are run by independent retailers. Together, they have 14,000 employees.
Source: Stern
