Crisis erases 30% of METRO's sales per square metre

Autor: Cristina Rosca 22.03.2011

The METRO group, the leading player in Romanian trade, ended last year with 1.837 billion euros in sales, down 3.5% against the previous year. The crisis is felt even stronger in sales per square metre, which narrowly exceed 5,000 euros, compared with 7,500 euros in 2007, according to ZF calculations.

Ziarul Financiar calculated sales per square metre based on the German group's sales of 1.9 billion euros in 2007 and 1.837 billion euros last year, on the number of stores - 37 in 2007 and 51 last year, and on an average surface of 7,000 square metres per store. Sales per square metres are one of the best performance indicators in retail.

METRO, present on the Romanian market with Metro Cash&Carry and real,- Hypermarket, having 51 stores in total (minus the four Metro Punct stores that the German group's financial report does not include) failed to match the 2007 performance as far as total sales are concerned, as well - back in 2007 in had over 1.9 billion euros with 14 less stores.

Metro Cash&Carry last year posted 1.137 billion euros in sales, down 7.3%, and real,-'s sales went up 3.4%, to 694 million euros. Moreover, the Germans made over 1,200 people redundant last year, most of them at Real.