Consumers and shareholders supported Jumbo once again

With the participation of shareholders that represented the 84,82% of the share capital, the Annual General Meeting which was held today approved the previous financial year results, the planning for the current financial year and the exceptionally non dividend distribution for the year 2012/2013.

During the Company’s Annual General Meeting the management informed the shareholders that during the first quarter (July – September 2013) Group’s sales increased by +5,81%, while the primary data show that the gross margin will present a small improvement.

The management reminded the shareholders that the first quarter affects the overall performance less while the most important quarter for the Group’s annual results is the second which includes Christmas trading. The first quarter performance is better than the estimates for the current year.

It should be noted that according to the budget for the current fiscal year 2013-2014, sales are estimated to grow between 2% and 4%, while net profit is expected to reach EUR 75m.

Note that the detailed results for the first quarter of the current fiscal year are expected to be announced on Monday, November 25 after the closing of the Athens Exchange.

Regarding the store network the management referred that during the first four months of the current financial year, the Group opened two new hyperstores in Greece, one owned store in Serres of Greece (9.000 sqm), and a one leased store in Athens (11.000 sqm) while few days ago the first store of the Group started its operation in Romania at the city of Timisoara (13.000 sqm)

In the next few days the opening of the second Jumbo store in Romania at the city of Bucharest (14.000sqm) is expected and also the opening of the new leased store in Paphos of Cyprus (10.000 sqm).

As a result, Jumbo Group will operate a network of 66 stores, 52 out of which are located in Greece, 3 in Cyprus, 8 in Bulgaria and 2 in Romania and also the on line store e-jumbo.gr.

Finally, during the General Meeting the management mentioned that the title of “True Leader” has been awarded to Jumbo, for the third consecutive year, by the ICAP Group based on 4 specific objective criteria , in a ceremony held on October 22nd.

The Jumbo responded at the same time to the following objective criteria:

1. Was among the most profitable companies or groups for 2012 based on the EBITDA
2. Was one of the companies or groups with the largest number of employees and that number increased from 2011 to 2012.
3. It has a high ICAP Credit Score
4. It has been on the top 10 positions of the industry (based on turnover)