Lenta reports strong fourth quarter sales growth
Russian supermarket giant Lenta has reported that sales climbed by 30.6% to 59.5 billion roubles in its fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, like-for-like sales increased by 7.6% year-on-year boosted by double-digit growth in December.
The company opened 21 hypermarket and eight supermarkets in the period to take its total number of stores to 132 at the end of December.
The results mean that total sales climbed by 34.5% year-on-year in 2014 to 194 billion roubles which was in line with the expectations. Like-for-like sales grew 10.6% in the year.
Lenta chief executive Jan Dunning said: “Lenta further extended its track record of rapid growth during 2014, opening a record 31 hypermarkets and 14 supermarkets and increasing net selling space by 39%.
“It is clear that the economy will face further challenges in 2015. Lenta will continue to focus on improving value for our customers and increasing productivity. Our team has developed a very strong pipeline of projects for the upcoming years, but we will closely monitor market conditions and optimise our store opening programme as appropriate to maintain high returns in combination with a healthy balance sheet.
“Having added around 195,000 sq.m. of selling space in 2014 we remain on track to meet our long-term target of doubling net selling space over the three years to December 2016.”
