Announcement: 9months 2007/2008 results

Jumbo group the biggest retail company of toys, baby products, stationary products and other relevant products in Greece announces the nine months results for the period of 01/07/2007-31/03/2008: Sales growth reached 14.22% y-o-y from 17.39% y-o-y in the six months period of the current financial year. The reason for the slowdown of the sales growth is that the third quarter doesn’t include the sales from the Greek Orthodox Easter which was celebrated at the end of April this year. The management has already announced that for the period including Easter (10 months) sales grew by 18.32% y-o-y. For the nine months gross margin reached 52.64% from 51.14% of the nine months period of 2006/2007. That improvement is attributed to the fact that sales mix does not include branded products that are sold mainly in Easter enjoy relatively lower gross margins. For the end of the current financial year is expected a deterioration of the gross margin but it will be still slightly improved against the six months level. Group’s net profits reached € 58.7m improved by 18.04% y-o-y. The nine months results were negatively effected by the continuing arrhythmia in the Greek harbours. As a consequence general expenses such as advertising, cost of internal transports, overtime etc were increased. Cyprus was particularly affected from the disturbance in the supply of the Jumbo stores there. As a result the third quarter results were mainly supported by the stores in Greece and in Bulgaria. For the end of the current financial year it is expected an improvement of the expenses as a percentage of sales from the nine months levels, if the situation settles. Sales performance for the 10 months period led the management to revise positively the guidance for the current financial year of 15% growth of sales and profit at the six months levels. Specifically, the company’s management estimates that for the full financial year the group’s sales growth will reach the six months growth of 17.39% or will be improved. Regarding the net profit the management estimates that the six months growth rate of 21.42% is feasible with a probability to exceed it if there is a last minute positive development regarding the situation in the Greek harbors and the road transports with the continuing strikes. The Group currently operated 41 stores located in Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria while the investment program is accelerated for the operation of new stores. In the first half of the coming financial year (July 2008-June 2009) the company is expected to open three new hyper-stores in Greece.