September 15 (SeeNews) - Lithuanian retailer Maxima Group said on Wednesday that its revenue from operations on the Bulgarian market rose by 8.9% year-on-year in the first half of 2021, mainly on the back of new store openings during the last twelve months.
Maxima Group’s consolidated like-for-like (LFL) revenue rose by 2.1% in Bulgaria in the first six months of this year, the company said in a statement.
All countries where the group is active are demonstrating positive LFL, despite COVID-19 related restrictions still having a negative impact on sales, the retailer noted.
The group, which is active in Bulgaria through its T-Market brand, posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 175 million euro ($206.7 million) in the review period, up by 12 million euro compared with the fist half of 2020.
"Despite continued pandemic related costs and increased tax burden due to introduced retail tax in Poland, consolidated EBITDA margin remained flat at 8.0%. Stable EBITDA margin was achieved by focusing on cost optimization," Maxima Group said.
The group's sales of goods via the e-commerce channel soared by 71.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2021, with the biggest part of the increase contributed by e-grocer Barbora in the Baltics, the retailer said.
Maxima Group swung to a net profit of 1.4 million euro from operations in Bulgaria in 2020 from a net loss of 4.7 million euro in 2019. The revenue from operations in Bulgaria grew to 182.8 million euro from 149.5 million euro.
Maxima Grupe is managing over 1,000 supermarkets in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria and Poland. The group has over 16 years of experience in the Bulgarian market with the T-Market brand and owns over 93 supermarkets in 48 locations across the country.
($ = 0.846399 euro)