JUMBO enjoys the confidence of the consumers and does not require any "pharmaceutical" support

Through the endless and irresponsible rumours that lately dominate the market; the Jumbo insists to both validly and timely inform the shareholders-partners for the course of the year and the Group’s next moves.

For the period of July 2013 until March 2014, the sales of the Jumbo stores reached EUR 410,94 million compared to EUR 381,85 million at the respective period of the previous financial year.

The above result implies that the Group’s turnover was increased during the nine months period of the current financial year by 7,62% y-o-y. It is reminded that during the first six months of the current financial year the Group’s sales were increased by 7,23% y-o-y.

During the period of January 2014 until March 2014, that is to say the third quarter, the sales of the Greek stores remained at a positive territory. The sales increase of the stores in Cyprus remains impressive after the opening of the new store in Paphos. Bulgaria has continued to grow at a double-digit rate. Moreover, the opening of the first 2 stores of the Group in Romania contributed at this positive performance.

Today the Group operates a network of 66 stores 52 out of which are located in Greece, 4 in Cyprus, 8 in Bulgaria, 2 in Romania and the online store e-Jumbo.

It is obvious that the product mix of the Jumbo stores is efficient and that is why the management repeats to shareholders that it has no intention to get involved in the medicinal products market and the noise on this issue comes exclusively from corporatist reasons.

Jumbo continues to invest targeting the operation of 4 new stores per year. More specifically, the opening of 6 to 8 new stores in the next 3 to 4 years is expected in Greece while in Romania it is expected that the store network will account 16 to 18 stores in the next 5 years.

Apart from the opening of new stores, the enrichment of the variety of products is continuous, based on the developments and trends in demand of the categories which the Group operates and the maintenance of the product’s prices is at competitive levels.