Metro Romania sales climb 40% in the first half

Net sales obtained in the first half of the current year by Metro Cash & Carry Romania SRL went up by 75 million Deutsche marks against the same period of last year, from 182 million Deutsche marks to 257 million Deutsche marks, reads a report drawn by German group Metro AG on the preliminary results registered in the first half of the year.

Turnover estimated by Metro Cash & Carry for the entire year 2000 stands at 300 million dollars (about 600 million Deutsche marks), the general manager of Metro Cash & Carry Romanian SRL, Dusan Wilms, explained in an interview with Ziarul Financiar.

In Romania Metro has five supermarkets, of which two are located in Bucharest, and another one is to be opened in Voluntari. Metro managers believe that the company will soon cover the market of cash & carry services in the capital.

In the first half of 2000, Metro AG net sales increased by 8.4%, up to 42.71 billion Deutsche marks.

Sales obtained outside Germany went up from 37.2% to 40.3%, due to the group’s accelerated international expansion. Results obtained out of daily activities registered a 10.4% rally and attained 138 million Deutsche marks.

Cash & carry network sales amounted to 19.1 billion Deutsche marks, 10.1% higher as compared to the first half of last year. Over the same period, cash & carry sales outside Germany climbed from 73.5% to 74.9%.

Beside the cash & carry centres, the German group operates in other trade domains, such as food retail, hypermarkets, shops specialising in non-food products, electronics and household appliances, etc.

At the end of June 2000, the group held in Europe (except for Germany), China and Morocco 270 cash & carry centres, 27 hypermarkets and 118 shops specialised in non-food products, located in 20 countries. Due to the improvement of Metro’s international presence, sales obtained abroad attained 17.20 billion Deutsche marks, against 14.63 billion Deutsche marks in the same period of the previous year.

Over the first six months of this year, the group continued international expansion of cash & carry activities, by opening eight new supermarkets. In Eastern Europe the group opened two centres in Bulgaria, two in the Czech Republic and one in Romania.

Metro also enhanced its international presence by opening new supermarkets in France, Holland and Greece.

In the fiscal year 2000, 38 cash & carry supermarkets are to be inaugurated. The entire cash & carry network includes 354 supermarkets located in 19 countries, of which 75 in Germany and 270 abroad.