“The year 2019 was a year when we learned a lot (…). In terms of business, last year we continued to grow, comparable to the previous year and reached our sales goals, as set out at the beginning of the year,” says Roland Ruffing, CEO of Metro Cash & Carry Romania.
Metro posted growth of 12% in 2018, something it had not done in over a decade. The growth is organic, since no new stores opened last year, when private consumer spending rose by about 7% and the inflation reached some 4%.
A double-digit growth rate should take the sales of Metro Cash & Carry to almost 6 billion lei (EUR1.25 billion), a level not reached since 2008, the last year of economic boom Romania experienced, according to ZF’s calculations. That was also Metro’s sales peak in the country.(EUR1=RON4.7779)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)