German retailer Rewe performs best abroad

German retailer Rewe’s foreign operations are a lot more profitable than its domestic operations. Figures released today by Rewe show that the retailer achieves more than two-thirds of its profits abroad.

Rewe’s German operations have a profit margin of only 0.4 per cent, while abroad the average profit margin is 1.5 per cent. Abroad, Rewe is active in 13 countries and its most profitable operations are in Russia, the Ukraine and Romania. Also in neighbouring Austria the German retailer achieves a profit margin of 3.2 per cent which is much better than in Germany.

In the coming years Rewe’s chief executive Achim Eger intends to drastically reorganise the company to increase the retailer’s profitability. For this he benchmarks retailers like Tesco and Carrefour who have a much better result with profit margins of 5.7 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.