February 9 (SeeNews) - Greek toy retailer Jumbo said that its sales increased by some 45% on the year in January, due to outstanding performance in all four countries where it operates, including Bulgaria and Romania.
Sales in Romania grew by an annual 40% last month, whereas sales from operations in Bulgaria surged by 53%, Jumbo said in a press release on Wednesday.
"However, management strongly emphasizes such a performance must not be extrapolated for the remainder of the year," Jumbo noted.
The company also said it called an extraordinary general meeting for March 8 to seek shareholders' approval for the payment of a gross dividend of 1.155 euro ($1.24) per share from undistributed profits. The special dividend amount is equal to the total dividend distributed in 2022, according to the press release. If approved, the payout is scheduled to start on March 27. Last year, Jumbo paid out a special gross dividend totalling 0.77 per share in two equal installments.
The company's sales in Bulgaria increased by 17% in 2022, whereas at the group level the increase amounted to 14%.
As of end-2022, Jumbo operated nine stores in Bulgaria out of a total of 83, also located in Greece, Cyprus and Romania. Jumbo has announced plans to launch two hyper-stores and online sales in Romania as well as one hyper-store in Cyprus in 2023.
($ = 0.9292 euro)