2024-03-16 05:00:00
The Spar Group achieved sales of over 20 billion euros for the first time. However, special taxes in Hungary and losses from Hervis reduced profits.
The Salzburg Spar Group was able to further expand its market leadership in the domestic food trade last year. In the more than 1,500 branches in Austria, gross sales revenue increased by around nine percent to 9.88 billion euros, according to the company. The growth is inflation-driven, but it also grew faster than the market. There has been a strong increase in own brands. Spar recorded a 22 percent increase in sales for the budget brand S-Budget. The vegetarian brand Spar Veggie (+24 percent) and the organic Naturpur line (+9 percent) also grew strongly. According to the company, the market share in Austria was increased by 0.5 percentage points to 36.8 percent.
Across all business areas, the Spar Group achieved sales revenue of over 20 billion euros for the first time in 2023. However, according to the company, high energy and personnel costs led to a drop in profits. There were also losses from the sports trading subsidiary Hervis and special taxes in Hungary. Last year alone, the Hungarian subsidiary made a loss of 47.8 million euros due to the special tax introduced by Viktor Orbán. As reported, Spar has therefore asked the EU Commission to intervene. “We expect that this tax will be repealed and infringement proceedings will be initiated,” said Spar boss Hans Reisch in an interview with SN this week. The EU Commission said on Friday that it would “investigate the complaint and take appropriate follow-up action”. The Spar group result fell by 16 percent to 221 million euros in 2023.
According to Reisch, the sports trading subsidiary Hervis incurred similarly high losses in 2023 as in the previous year. In 2022 the minus was around 30 million euros. The effects of inflation, reduced purchasing power and the weak winter have caused sales in sports retailers to shrink overall and led to high inventories, according to Spar. In 2023, Hervis lost 7 percent in sales in Austria and five neighboring countries to 514 million euros. As reported, Spar will therefore streamline the Hervis branch network. In Austria, six of the 105 locations are expected to be eliminated. Six stores will also be closed in Bavaria, three locations near the border will remain and will be operated from Austria in the future.
The online business is just as loss-making as Hervis. “The high density of supermarkets in Austria is the reason why online doesn’t work,” Reisch explained to the APA. Spar currently only delivers groceries in Salzburg and Vienna and the surrounding area and does not want to change anything regarding that.
The Spar Group also owns 31 shopping centers belonging to the shopping center subsidiary SES. The foreign business achieved total sales of 7.8 billion euros in 2023.
Spar is no longer interested in the Lamarr luxury department store owned by the insolvent Signa Prime on Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna. “It is not possible to turn the shell into a shopping center,” said Spar boss Hans K. Reisch to the APA. “The value of this property is the land price minus demolition.” Spar is fundamentally interested in the Signa Waltherpark project in Bolzano, but there is no interest in the Tyrol department store and the Golden Quarter in Vienna.
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