September 17 (SeeNews) - Lithuanian retailer Maxima Group said on Thursday that its revenue from operations on the Bulgarian market remained solid in the first half of 2020, increasing by an annual 23.4%, mainly due to expansion.
Maxima Group’s consolidated like-for-like (LFL) revenue rose by 6.7% in Bulgaria in the first six months of this year, driven by high inflation levels, rather than volume growth, the retailer said in a statement.
The group, which is active in Bulgaria through its T-Market brand, posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 163 million euro ($192.2 million) in the review period, up by 21 million euro compared with the fist half of last year.
EBITDA improvement was supported by overall strong performance coming from the first quarter of 2020 and good cost control mainly coming from Lithuania and Poland, which compensated for the negative impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in the second quarter.
Negative COVID-19 impact to the group’s profit before tax is estimated in the range between 5 million euro and 10 million euro, the group said.
However, the pandemic accelerated consumer shift to e-commerce and as a result revenue through e-commerce channel in the Baltics doubled in the first half of 2020 compared with the same period of last year.
"Capital investment levels in the first half of 2020 were stable at 47 million euro compared to 50 million euro in the same period in 2019, due to investment review measures taken during lockdown periods in the countries where the Group operates," Maxima Group said.
In 2019, the group's revenue in Bulgaria rose by 12.6% year-on-year, the second-highest revenue growth figure for the period, after Poland's 15.2% increase.
In February, through its local unit Maxima Bulgaria, the retailer opened its 11th store under the T-Market brand in the second-largest city of Plovdiv and its 84th in the country. Last year, Maxima Bulgaria signed long-term contracts for the lease of the 11 stores of supermarket chain Triumf in Plovdiv.
Maxima Group entered the Bulgarian market in 2005. Besides T-Market in Bulgaria, the group owns the retail chains Maxima in the Baltic countries, Stokrotka in Poland, as well as e-grocer Barbora which operates in the Baltics.
($ = 0.848127 euro)