Retail: Half of sales were lost in the first month of 2022

By George Lampiris

At a rate that reaches even 50%, the decline in consumption in Greek retail increased in January this year compared to the corresponding month of 2019 which is considered a comparable year, as typically reported in Capital.gr the president of the Central Union of Chambers, Giannis Chatzitheodosiou. We will remind you that at the beginning of 2020, the retail stores were closed due to the pandemic, which is why this January is not compared to last year, but to 2019.

According to G. Hatzitheodosiou, this fact is due to the measures to restrict traffic, pointing out, however, that there is room for optimism for the course of the market in February. According to him, prices for clothing and footwear have not increased despite the increased costs of transport, energy and raw materials. “The reason why there have been no increases in clothing and footwear at retail yet, is that the stores have maintained stocks from previous seasons due to limited traffic over the last two years and successive lockdowns.”

According to the head of the Central Union of Chambers, the increases in the clothing and footwear sector will appear from November, after the end of the discounts, when the resumption of imports will be needed, given the gradual sale of stocks from previous years.

At the same time, the increase in energy prices, which also affects the fixed monthly expenses of the citizens, comes to set priorities in this case as well, in terms of managing the disposable income, first of all in accounts and current liabilities, suspending market expenses. products that are not essential.

Fourlis Group: The market is numb in January

In communication we had with executives of the Fourlis group, one of the largest retail companies in Greece, they report the course recorded at the moment, saying that 2022 started lazily due to restrictions but also due to financial uncertainty, combined with the week of the event of the snow and frost that followed.

Profitable in 2021 for the Fourlis group

The same sources point out that the consumer public continued in the current period to make their purchases from the Intersport stores that the Fourlis group manages at the same time as Athlete’s Foot and IKEA. As far as IKEA is concerned, the course of January was not as encouraging, with the chain of furniture and decoration items moving downwards compared to the comparable January of 2019. They even note that the downward trend started in December and specifically after implementation of the measures to limit the “Omicron” mutation, while two strongly upward months had preceded October and November for the group.

Conversely, the picture in 2021 for the group is similar

The course of 2021 was inversely proportional for the group. In particular, Intersport reached numbers of 2019 within 2021, moving significantly upwards compared to 2020. As far as IKEA is concerned, in 2021 it moved to a high single-digit number of sales compared with 2020 and with a low single-digit percentage below 2019. In fact, 2021 for the Fourlis group is characterized as a good year, which is expected to be reflected with very satisfactory profitability. We remind you that for the group in the first nine months of last year it brought sales of 316.5 million euros, compared to 279 million euros in 2020 with an increase of 13.3%.

In retail sportswear (Intersport and Athlete’s Foot), sales in the first nine months of 2021 amounted to 122.7 million euros, showing an increase of 25.7% compared to the nine months of 2020 (97.7 million euros). In Greece sales increased by 18.2% while in other countries there was an average increase of 36.0%, compared to the first nine months of 2020. IKEA presented sales of 193.9 million euros in the first nine months of 2021, increased by 6.7% compared to the first nine months of 2020 (EUR 181.7 million).