The currently low consumer sentiment is also evident at ANWR Group eG.
After a record year in 2022, the group’s total business volume fell by five percent compared to the previous year and now amounts to 20.7 billion euros, the trading association announced on Monday.
ANWR is looking back on a particularly challenging year, says managing director Frank Schuffelen. Volatile conditions would have led to cautious purchasing of goods by affiliated retailers. This in turn results in the subdued development of business volume, which is evident in all segments of the group.
With a billing volume of 116 million euros, the leather goods sector recorded a three percent decrease compared to the previous year and thus the fewest losses within the various segments. Both the shoes sector and the sports sector were nine percent below the previous year’s value at 1.3 billion and 1.5 billion respectively. In addition, the company’s own association groups, which include Sport 2000, Garant and Goldkrone, in Germany and other European countries in 2023 had sales of 2.9 billion euros, nine percent below the previous year’s level.
The two banks in the ANWR Group, DZB Bank GmbH and Aktivbank AG, also suffered a decline in business volume. These recorded a business volume of 17.7 billion euros, which corresponds to a decline of four percent compared to the previous year.
ANWR relies on ‘strength of cooperating retail’
Nevertheless, Schuffelen is in a positive mood. “We believe in the strength of cooperating retail,” said the managing director. “Together with many thousands of entrepreneurs on both the dealer and supplier sides, we have an enormous power plant. We are able to actively shape change in retail. Such a power plant provides stability.”
As a cooperative, in view of the difficult situation in trade, ANWR continues to use various initiatives to raise the profile of the trading companies affiliated to the association and thus promote their long-term profitability. Some such initiatives to strengthen the company’s positioning have already been introduced with the expansion of the sports concepts Absolute Run and Absolute Teamsport, while comprehensive management consulting and the piloting of the Pure Wear sustainability concept were implemented in the shoe sector. The further development of the e-commerce platforms Schuhe.de, Sport2000.de and Bagmondo.de also contributes to the profiling and omnichannel capability of retailers.