LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), December 20 (SeeNews) – Slovenian retailer Mercator [LJE:MELR] said on Thursday it plans a consolidated EBITDA of 91 million euro ($103.7 million) on a revenue of 2.1 billion euro in 2019.
“For 2019, Mercator group is planning above all to further execute its development strategy in which deleveraging remains key,” Mercator said in a Ljubljana bourse filing.
In 2019, Mercator Group's investments will amount to 35 million euro, of which nearly 78% will be allocated to investment in Slovenia.
“The key characteristic of operations and performance in 2019 will be especially growth of all costs in all markets, including costs of energy, material and services, and in particular labour costs, also due to changes in legislation,” Mercator noted, adding that according to estimates, costs could increase by as much as 3.2%. “It will be very important to continue strict control of all costs in 2019.”
Despite the stringent business conditions and pronounced increase of new sales area operated by competitors in all markets where Mercator is present, Mercator will plans to increase its revenue of permanent units in retail by 2 percentage points, while also increasing the revenue in non-core activities by additional 4 percentage points in 2019.
Mercator also said it is planning to open around 12,000 m2 of new retail area in 2019. “Thus, Mercator will continue in the next year to update its stores, while a new concept of assortment that places even more stress on fresh food departments will remain Mercator's fundamental direction towards consumers and its competitive edge,” the statement added.
Mercator is a unit of Croatia's ailing Agrokor concern.
($=0.8774 euro)
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