Investors punish Colruyt profit warning: share loses more than 20 percent | Economy

Board chairman Jef Colruyt had little encouraging news for the shareholders of his supermarket group on Wednesday when he drew up a state of affairs at their annual general meeting. Energy costs, transport costs and labor costs are on the rise. Furthermore, suppliers want to push through price increases for their products, but the grutter wants to keep it off as much as possible.

A full calculation of the costs is difficult for Colruyt. The company wants to stick to its strategy of guaranteeing the lowest prices for consumers. Moreover, competition remains fierce and Belgian food retail is characterized by lower sales volumes, now that consumer confidence has fallen.

The results that Colruyt expects in its financial year 2022-2023 – the company closes its accounts on March 31 – will therefore be considerably lower than those in the financial year just ended. In this, the group saw its turnover increase by 1.2% to slightly more than 10 billion euros. That did not prevent the net profit from plummeting by 30.8% to 288 million euros.

The profit warning is immediately felt on the stock exchange a day later. In recent months, investors have already sold the price of the Colruyt share a strong push. On Wednesday, the title closed at 28.84 euros. At the beginning of April, more than 40 euros was paid, in June 2019 even more than 62 euros. The arrival of Dutch chains such as Albert Heijn and Jumbo did the company no good.

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