During the first half of its financial year 2022/2023, the Halse retailer Colruyt saw its operating result (EBIT) fall by 41.6 percent compared to the same period last year, to 123 million euros. The net result was 45.1 percent lower at EUR 89 million. The company announced this after the close of trading. Analysts had on average assumed an operating result of 163.8 million euros and a net result of 135 million euros.
Colruyt saw turnover increase by 5.7 percent, “primarily driven by inflation, partly offset by lower volumes”. The group sees operating costs increase sharply, as a result of rising energy and transport costs and due to the indexation of wages. For the latter, the greatest impact is not expected until the second half of the year.
“As a retailer and market leader, we continue to fulfill our social role, whereby the Colruyt Lowest Prices formula continues to fulfill its brand promise,” says CEO Jef Colruyt. “This means that price increases are not fully passed on to the customer, nor is the high inflation on our energy and transport costs and on our employee benefits. As a result, Colruyt Group’s results are under significant pressure. The coming months will also remain very challenging, with a gloomy macroeconomic outlook that will further affect consumer spending.”
Gross profit margin fell from 26.9 percent of sales in the same period last year to 26.4 percent of sales, where analysts expected a larger decline to 26.3 percent.
On Tuesday, Colruyt Group confirmed its expectation that the consolidated result in 2022/23 will decrease significantly compared to 2021/22. The decline would be of the same percentage for the full year as during the first half of the year.
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