March 14 (SeeNews) - Greek retailer Jumbo said that its profit before taxes from operations in Bulgaria rose to 15.7 million euro ($17.7 million) in the first six months of its fiscal year 2018-2019, started July 1, compared to 14.8 million euro in the same period of its 2017-2018 fiscal year.
The company booked sales of 53.9 million euro in the July 1 - December 31 period, up from 49.8 million euro in the same period of 2017, the company said in an interim financial statement earlier this week.
Cost of goods sold increased to 26.6 million euro in the period under review from 24.5 million euro in the corresponding period of 2017.
The company's Bulgarian operations accounted for 11.26% of the group's turnover, and 12.32% of the profit before taxes.
Jumbo intends to open a new store in the country by the end of its fiscal year. Currently, the toy retailer has nine stores in the country - four in Sofia, and one each in the cities of Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse and Stara Zagora.
Earlier this year Jumbo cut the registered capital of its Bulgarian unit - Jumbo EC.B, by 37.3 million levs to 161.6 million levs.
Jumbo's Bulgarian unit employed 831 people at the end of 2018, down from 839 people at the end of June 2018. Jumbo entered the Bulgarian market in 2005.
Outside Greece, Jumbo has stores in Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus. At the end of 2018, the company had a total of 77 stores in the four countries.
($ = 0.8852 euro)