Galeria Kaufhof, the big German retail group, which in addition to its 124 Kaufhof department stores runs 13 sports stores under the banner Sportarena and four others under the specialty outdoor banner Wanderzeit, has reported a 0.9 percent increase in sales for the first three months of this year.
Including GB Inno in Belgium, the company's total sales reached €705 million, and those of its German stores increased by only 0.8 percent to €653 million. The so-called Western European division, which comprises the 15 department stores in Belgium, improved its sales by 2.2 percent to €47 million. Earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) improved from a negative €27 million to a lower loss of €24 million.
Kaufhof's parent company, Metro Group, said that the beginning of the year was weak due to the weather, but improved “dynamically” in the later weeks of the quarter. Apparently, the group is happy with Kaufhof's online platform, whose sales doubled compared with the previous year's first quarter, partially due to its new web-based offer of apparel.
Real, Metro's food chain, which runs many sports stores called Sportwelten (“worlds of sports”), increased its sales by 3.5 percent in local currencies and by 2.3 percent in euros to €2.7 billion. Turnover in Germany was up by €3.8 percent to €2.0 billion. In Eastern Europe, Real's sales dipped by 1.8 percent in euros to €0.7 billion, but increased by 2.6 percent in local currencies. Real increased its operating losses after amortization (Ebit)n, however, from €21 million in last year's first quarter to €23 million.
Metro Group's total sales went up by 2.2 percent in euros and by 2.6 percent in local currencies, reaching a total of €15.6 billion. Ebit, however, fell from a profit of €142 million in the first three months of 2011 to a loss of €9 million in the same period this year.
