Ljubljana, 11 September (STA) - Mercator, a leading Slovenian retail group owned by Croatia's Fortenova, finished 2023 with a loss of EUR 47.8 million after posting a profit of EUR 12.2 million in 2022. Its sales revenue meanwhile increased by 4% to EUR 1.3 billion, according to the group's business report. Retail sales revenue increased by 5.5% to EUR 1.04 billion.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), taking into account one-off effects, dropped by 31.8% to EUR 45.1 million.
The group's total costs increased by 8.2% or EUR 30.5 million to EUR 403.3 million, with labour costs rising by EUR 14.2 million and electricity costs by EUR 12.1 million.
At the end of 2023, the company had 7,781 employees, down 7.5% from the end of 2022, of whom 7,609 were on open-ended contracts.
Mercator's debt stemming from loans decreased by 35.5% to EUR 226.8 million at the end of last year, which the company said was due to selling its subsidiaries in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia (Mercator-BH, Mercator-CG and Mercator-S) to Fortenova.
For this year, Mercator plans to generate EUR 1.4 billion in revenue.
