Emperia Holding S.A., one of the largest Polish FMCG retail and wholesale trading groups, reported a 20 percent increase in sales revenues on the same period last year.
In the second quarter of 2008, Emperia Holding S.A., one of the largest Polish FMCG retail and wholesale trading groups, reported a 20 percent increase in sales revenues on the same period last year. The revenues were in excess of PLN 1.3 billion. The company’s net profit stood at PLN 22.08 million, down on the net profit generated by Emperia in the second quarter of 2007 by 32.39 percent.
For Emperia Holding, the second quarter of 2008 was a period of intense rationalisation of the trading group aimed at merging seven separate wholesale operations (BOS, Eldorado, DLS, Sygel Jool, Ekspress Podlaski, Sydo, and Alpaga Xema) into a strong wholesale company to operate under the name of Tradis. Upon completion of the first stage of the reorganisation, involving the change of the corporate name from Eldorado Sp. z o.o. to Tradis Sp. z o.o., Tradis started to take over the operations of the various branches owned by the group wholesale subsidiaries. First, (5 May) the Distribution Centre in Błonie owned by BOS was acquired, followed by the Warszawa-Praga cash&carry branch of Express Podlaski (12 May), and five DLS branches located in Ciechanów (19 May), Płońsk (2 June), Kutno (6 June), Konin (19 June), and Włocławek (11 August). August saw the acquisition of the operations of Sydo, comprising four branches located in Wrocław, Zielona Góra, Legnica-Ziemnice, and Katowice. In the retail business, efforts aimed at unifying retail outlet formats continued.
Emperia Holding has been consistently pursuing its consolidation strategy. As regards the wholesale business, Emperia Holding incorporated MAGO in Piła, part of the MPT wholesale group. MAGO was used to set up a new branch, currently owned by DLS, which will subsequently become part of the Tradis organisational structure. In 2007, the Piła-based company reported sales of some PLN 53 million. Emperia Holding has budgeted major investment outlays for the expansion and upgrade of the Piła facility. The objective is to set up a modern distribution warehouse some 3,000 sq. m in area. Completion of the works is scheduled for November 2008.
In addition to the consolidation efforts, Emperia Holding continued the Group’s organic growth. A Distribution Centre in Wrocław of some 13 thousand sq. m was launched, six Stokrotka supermarkets were opened, and the number of compact supermarkets increased by 202 outlets.
“The consistent organic growth and active consolidation efforts help Emperia Holding strengthen its leadership in the Polish FMCG market, and the robust financial performance—despite high costs of restructuring and rapid development—confirm our belief that we have chosen the right strategy to attain our ambitious goals in both the current year and the years ahead,” said Artur Kawa, Chairman of Management Board, Emperia Holding S.A.
Company Background Information:
Emperia Holding has been consistently pursuing the consolidation of the retail and wholesale FMCG market in Poland. Following the 2006 takeover of the BOS Group (56 branches and 81 outlets in Eastern and North-Western Poland), in July 2007 it incorporated Społem Tychy (36 retail outlets in the Śląskie Region), and in September the Centrum subsidiaries (13 retail outlets in the Warmińsko-Mazuskie Region of Poland) and Maro-Markety (18 retail outlets located in the Wielkopolskie and Opolskie Regions of Poland).
In June 2007, the decision was made to acquire 100 percent of the wholesale subsidiaries of Sydo in Wrocław and Alpaga Xema in Poznań. October saw the incorporation of Euro Sklep S.A. (265 retail franchises and proprietary outlets operating in the Śląskie, Opolskie, Dolnośląskie, and Małopolskie Regions of Poland), and in November Emperia acquired Sklepy Polka (74 outlets in the Podlaskie and Świętokrzyskie Regions). In December, Retail Services Poland (27 retail franchises) was taken over.
The acquisitions continued in 2008. In February the Holding incorporated Lewiatan Dolny Śląsk and Lewiatan Zachód, and Lewiatan Orbita in April. Emperia also concluded the Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Lewiatan Holding, opening the door to a full equity integration with Lewiatan. The company has set its sights on further acquisitions, and talks are well under way with partners seeking to join the Emperia Trading Group.
Emperia Holding S.A. has been in the Polish market for 18 years now. Its operations fall into two major business segments: retail (among others Stokrotka and Stokrotka Premium, Groszek, Milea, Lewiatan Podlasie, Zachód, Dolny Śląsk, and Orbita, Społem Tychy, Jaskółka, Centrum, Euro Sklepy) and wholesale (9 subsidiaries: Tradis, BOS, DLS, Sygel-Jool, DEF, Express Podlaski, Sydo, Alpaga-Xema, and an importing and exporting arm, Arsenal). In April, the process of integrating selected wholesale companies into a single business under the business name of Tradis kicked off. Both business segments of Emperia boast a workforce of close to 11,000.