Estonia, Markets and Companies, Retail

The sales revenue of the Selver subsidiary Kulinaaria increased in the first quarter of 2014, demonstrating a growth of 19.1%, year-over-year. In the first quarter of 2014, 8.2 million purchases were made in Selver stores, exceeding the year-over-year number of purchases by 4.3%. The consolidated pre-tax loss of the supermarket segment was 0.7 million euros in the first quarter of 2014, of which the loss earned in Estonia was 0.1 million euros – an increase of 0.7 million euros year-over-year.

The consolidated net loss of the supermarket segment was one million euros, an improvement of 0.7 million euros compared to last year's loss of 1.7 million euros. The net loss earned in the first quarter of 2014 in Estonia was 0.4 million euros, an improvement of 0.7 million euros year-over-year. The reason for the difference between the amount of net profit and pre-tax profit is the income tax paid on dividends: income tax of 1.7 million euros was calculated on dividends in 2013 and 0.4 million euros in 2014.

The loss earned in Latvia was 0.6 million euros, remaining at the same level as in the previous year. Business activities have been frozen in Latvia.

New stores opened in 2013 supported the growth of sales revenue in the first quarter of 2014. New Selver stores have had a negative impact on the results of comparable stores, causing a constant re-allocation of clients between stores. Profit earned in Estonia has been affected by the continuing cost-efficiency of operations, as well as changes in the labor market that have resulted in an increase in average wages. On January 1, 2014, new commercial software was introduced in Selver, which has caused one-time uncapitalized costs.