Flamingo sells 20m-euro assets

Flamingo International, an IT&C and electrical
home appliances retailer, in the first six months
of the year registered losses of 4.8m euros, and turnover worth 67.9 million euros, down 7.4%
from last year and 3.1% less than the six-month target. The decrease was somewhat limited by rigorous cost controls as part of a restructuring process. Thus, expenses related to centre operations were cut down by 2.2m euros (45%). The falling sales were registered amid the delayed opening of two Flanco World stores and by the company relinquishing most operations carried out abroad. “We decided to just keep the distribution unit in the Netherlands, with the other foreign stores and distribution networks to be sold. The decision was made because we could not afford to continue to invest outside Romania,” says Dragos Simion, vice-president of Flamingo International. The retailer slashed its sales projections for this year by some 6-7% to around 160 million euros. The company’s representatives expect income to increase above the initially forecast level of 0.4m euros, because the company is expected to sell some assets that had not originally been taken into consideration. The value of assets is estimated at around 20m euros, with most of these deals expected to take place in Q3.