In fiscal 2015-2016, German Metro Group managed to reach its profit forecast. Previously, it had announced its full-year turnover dropped slightly compared to the year before.
Profit increase despite turnover drop
Metro Group’s total turnover dropped 1.4 % to 58.4 billion euro, something the group had announced earlier. Now, it revealed its profit numbers and those were a lot better: its group EBIT grew 50 million euro from 1.51 to 1.56 billion euro.
The company also revealed how each separate unit performed: Metro Cash & Carry’s like-for-like turnover grew 0.6 %, even though exchange rate fluctuations impacted total turnover, as it dropped 2.3 % to 29 billion euro. The chain’s EBIT was 1.259 billion euro, a lot higher than the 975 million euro from the year before thanks to the sale of its Vietnamese activities for 446 million euro. Excluding extraordinary revenue or expenditure, EBIT remained pretty much level.
Exchange rate impact on Eastern Europe
Media-Saturn’s turnover grew 0.6 % to 21.9 billion euro, but like-for-like turnover remained almost level. Its online sales grew a lot though, up 35 % to 1.6 billion euro. Its EBIT dropped from 336 to 300 million euro, largely because of restructuring costs.
Real’s turnover dropped 3.3 % to 7.5 billion euro because of store closures. At the same time, like-for-like turnover dropped 1.1 %, despite a 50 % positive sales growth to 68 million euro. The chain’s EBIT before special items grew 12 million, from 88 to 100 million euro.
Metro Group’s German turnover grew 0.6 %, while there were turnover drops for Western Europe (- 0.2 %) and Eastern Europe (- 6.4 %). Eastern European turnover would have increased had there not been exchange rate fluctuations (+ 1.2 %) and its like-for-like turnover also grew 0.8 %. Asian turnover dropped 1.2 %, despite a 2.4 % like-for-like turnover growth.
