Russia’s largest grocery chain, the X5 Retail Group, saw first quarter 2012 revenue grow 0.9 percent year-on-year to $3.862 billion, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
In ruble terms, revenue increased 4.4 percent to 116.879 billion rubles.
Like-for-like sales edged down 3.9 percent in ruble terms in January-March 2012 owing to a 4.6 percent decrease in customer traffic offset by a 0.7 percent increase in average basket.
The company also opened 126 soft discounters, seven supermarkets, 16 convenience stores and closed 12 stores, increasing its selling space by 42,000 square meters in the reporting period.
“We expect better quarter-on-quarter results in each of the formats for the remainder of 2012 driven by improving LFL’s, the growing sales contribution from new stores and stable macroeconomic environment, X5 CEO Andrei Gusev said in a statement.
“Based on these factors, we are confident in our ability to deliver sales growth of 15 percent to 20 percent in 2012 while maintaining EBITDA margins above seven percent,” he added.