Metro: reports slower quarterly sales growth

(CercleFinance.com) - German retailer Metro said that sales growth slowed in the first quarter of its 2019/2020 fiscal year due to a sharp drop in its sales in Russia.


Total sales increased by 2.2% to 7.5 billion euros in the quarter to 31 December, although same store sales rose by just 1%, compared to 2.1% growth in the same period a year ago, the supermarket group said.

In Russia, where Metro has been facing difficulties for many months now, like-for-like sales fell by 5.3% over the past quarter, the group said.

Meanwhile, in Germany, like-for-like sales decreased by 0.4%, impacted by a regulatory change concerning tobacco.

Metro said that business was also impacted by the widespread strikes in France.

Despite this, Metro confirmed its outlook for its 2019/2020 fiscal year, still expecting like-for-like sales to increase by 1.5% and EBITDA roughly at the same level as in the past financial year.

The Metro share was down 0.3% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after this report.

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