The 2014 nine-month turnover of Tallinna Kaubamaja Group increased by 8%

The consolidated unaudited sales revenue of Tallinna Kaubamaja Group in Q3 amounted to 133.2 million euros increasing by 6.8% compared to earlier. The sales revenue of first nine months of 2014 was 389.5 million euros growing by 8.0% compared to the result of 2013. Group’s nine-month net profit in 2014 was 10.3 million euros.

“The actual purchasing power of consumers has grown little by little due to wage growth and non-existent inflation and so has the courage to shop,” said Raul Puusepp, Chairman of the Executive Board of Tallinna Kaubamaja AS. “I believe that the greatest challenge of any merchant today is to maintain efficiency in the conditions of constantly growing labour costs. With the 14% growth in labour costs in nine months, over a third of which came from increased salaries of employees, we do have reason to be happy with the 3.1% growth of pre-tax profit,” Puusepp added.

Puusepp noted that the nine-month summary showed sales growth in almost all Group segments. The footwear segment was the only one with a decrease in turnover due to the restructuring of major shops. “The nine-month 2.5% growth of Kaubamaja must be considered a great result in a situation where the turnover of retail segment of the so-called department stores has been in constant decrease all over Estonia since February according to the Statistical Office. There was no growth in Q3 but this was expected when we consider the road repairing works in Tallinn and Tartu during summer months that made it extremely complicated for the customers to reach the city centre”. Constant decrease in the number of tourists coming from East also influences the department store segment according to Puusepp. “Russian customers have always been generous buyers – remarkable decrease in their number does not worry us too much but there is no reason for joy either,” Puusepp added.

According to Puusepp, a competition for each basket of products in the supermarket segment continues. “The Selver’s turnover increase is driven by daily work with the product selection. We have renewed our assortment of fresh groceries and increased the selection of gourmet products to meet the requirements of customers better,” Puusepp explained. By October 1st this year, the amount of Partner cards of the Group’s customer loyalty program was 606 thousand increasing by 10.3% within a year, which, according to Puusepp, indicates the continuously high trust of Estonians to Selver, as well as all other retail stores of Tallinna Kaubamaja Group.

Puusepp also noted that two events took place in Q3, importance and daily influence of which will become visible within the next few years. In September, Topsec Turvateenused OÜ acquired 100% ownership in Viking Security AS thus strengthening the field of security services that has been one of the more rapidly growing business lines of the Group during the last years. “The transaction added services related to design, installation and maintenance of electronic warning, security and monitoring systems to the manned and video security service and the possibility to participate in certified security procurements,” said Puusepp. The other important milestone towards the future according to Puusepp was commencement of construction works of a shopping centre in Viimsi where construction of a new Selver will also be completed in 2015.

The consolidated sales revenue of Selver supermarkets in the first nine months of the year 2014 was 268.5 million euros increasing by 7.1% compared to the earlier period. The net profit of Selver in the first nine months was 3.3 million euros, the net profit of Q3 3.1 million euros.

The sales revenue of the department stores segment in the first nine month of 2014 was 64.2 million euros, increasing by 2.5% compared to the same period of the last year. The EBIT of the department stores in the first nine months of 2014 was 1.9 million euros, which is 19.6% better than the result of the previous year.

The sales revenue of OÜ TKM Beauty Eesti operating the I.L.U. cosmetics shops in the first nine months of 2014 was 3.1 million euros, growth by 0.6% compared to the same period of 2013. The loss of the first nine months of 2014 was 0.3 million euros which is 0.1 million euros less than the loss in the comparable period of 2013.

The sales revenue of the car trade segment in the first nine months of 2014 was 43.8 million euros. Sales revenue exceeded the result of the same period of last year by 29.0%. A total of 2356 vehicles were sold within the first nine months of the year, 825 of which in the third quarter. The segment’s net profit of the first nine months of 2014 was 1.1 million euros and the net profit of Q3 was 0.9 million euros. EBIT of the first nine months of 2014 reached 1.6 million euros and exceeded the profit of the same period of 2013 by 5.5%.

The sales revenue of the footwear segment in the first nine months of 2014 was 10.2 million euros which is 0.4 million euros less than the sales revenue of the same period of the previous year. The loss of the first nine months was 1.3 million euros.

The external revenue of the real estate segment was 2.5 million euros in the first nine months of 2014 which is 0.1 million euros, i.e. 6.1%, more than during the same period of the last year. EBIT of the real estate segment in the first nine months of 2014 was 4.4 million euros which is 0.2 million euros, i.e. 3%, more than during the same period of the previous fiscal year.