The Colruyt group expects the consolidated result for its financial year, which runs until the end of March 2023, to “decrease considerably” compared to that of 2021-2022. The president of the group, Jef Colruyt, thus showed himself, Wednesday during a meeting of shareholders, even more pessimistic than a few months ago when Colruyt saw a probable decline in its net result.
In his speech, the president pointed to the drop in volumes in food stores and his company’s low-price policy which does not allow him to fully pass on price inflation to the customer.
“The inflationary pressure also leads to a significant increase in the group’s costs, the expected effect exceeding 200 million euros. These are mainly costs related to energy, transport and personnel. These have a significant impact given the automatic wage indexation system in Belgium,” adds Colruyt.
In the 2021-2022 financial year, Colruyt had made a profit of 288 million euros, a decrease of 25% compared to the previous financial year. The turnover had however climbed by 1.2%, to 10 billion euros.
In addition to supermarkets, Colruyt brings together the brands OKay, Bio-Planet, Dreamland, DATS 24 petrol stations and the fitness chain Jims.