Par Sudinfo with Belga
The Colruyt group expects the consolidated result for its financial year, which runs until the end of March 2023, to “decrease considerably” compared to that of 2021-2022. The president of the group, Jef Colruyt, thus showed himself, Wednesday during a meeting of shareholders, even more pessimistic than a few months ago when Colruyt saw a probable decline in its net result.
In his speech, the president pointed to the drop in volumes in food stores and his company’s low-price policy which does not allow him to fully pass on price inflation to the customer.
“The inflationary pressure also leads to a significant increase in the group’s costs, the expected effect exceeding 200 million euros. These are mainly costs related to energy, transport and personnel. These have a significant impact given the automatic wage indexation system in Belgium,” adds Colruyt.
In the 2021-2022 financial year, Colruyt had made a profit of 288 million euros, a decrease of 25% compared to the previous financial year. The turnover had however climbed by 1.2%, to 10 billion euros.
In addition to supermarkets, Colruyt brings together the brands OKay, Bio-Planet, Dreamland, DATS 24 petrol stations and the fitness chain Jims.