The Metro Group has announced that its sales increased by 10 per cent in 2007, reaching €65.9 billion, according to its preliminary figures. International sales by the German-based Group increased by 13.6 per cent to €38.0 billion, a record 57.7 per cent share of total sales.
Organic sales, which exclude the acquisitions of Wal-Mart Germany and Géant in Poland, increased by 7.1 per cent. Currency effects amounted to +0.2 percentage points. In Germany sales grew by 5.5 per cent to €27.9 billion where organic sales growth was 0.4 percent.
International sales grew fastest in Asia and Africa (26.7 per cent) and in Eastern Europe (24.4 per cent) with the slowest growth in Western Europe (excluding Germany) at 5.7 per cent. Organic international sales rose by 12.3 per cent. The currency effects amounted to +0.4 percentage points.
The Metro group, which now operates in 31 countries, opened a record 139 stores including 32 new Metro-Makro Cash & Carry stores. Sales by the Metro/Makro division rose by 6 per cent in 2007 which was in line with the medium-term target. It is now present in 29 countries following the market entry into Pakistan. In Russia six new stores were opened while in France, China and the Ukraine three new stores were opened in each. In Italy one store was closed and two were opened. The store network in Germany, Belgium, Greece, Morocco, Poland, Turkey and Pakistan was extended by one new store each. The original target of around 40 store openings could not be met due to unforeseeable occurrences and delays in Pakistan, China and India.
In FY 2007 sales at Real, the market leader in the German and Polish hypermarket segment, grew by 21 per cent mainly due to the acquired hypermarkets of Wal-Mart Germany and Géant in Poland. But also organic sales grew significantly by 3.9 per cent. In particular the accelerated selective expansion in Eastern Europe contributed to this sales growth. Here, Real generated sales of €2.3 billion in 2007. In December 2007, the real estate of 12 Real hypermarkets in Germany was sold to a real estate investor for the amount of €243 million. Real also opened 17 hypermarkets, including 14 in Eastern Europe. At the same time 36 Real stores, including 14 former Wal-Mart stores and 13 Extra supermarkets were closed as part of of the store network optimisation.
The group's consumer electronics division, Media Markt and Saturn, continued to strengthen its market position with a significant sales growth of 13 per cent in FY 2007. Media Markt and Saturn opened 84 stores, considerably more than originally planned and currently, the store network comprises more than 700 stores.
In FY 2007, sales at Galeria Kaufhof, the concept leader in the German department store segment, were slightly below prior year’s level due to the burden of the VAT increase. However, gross sales were slightly above prior year’s level.
At the end of 2007, METRO Group operated 2,469 stores in 31 countries and had some 270,000 employees.