The Fnac Darty group unveiled a slight loss in the first half on Wednesday, with sales almost stable over one year and which resisted in a context of high inflation.
Read alsoRepair, new martingale from Fnac Darty
Fnac Darty, which had returned to the green in the first half of 2021, recorded a net loss of 18 million euros in the first six months of 2022, according to a press release.
The unfavorable macro-economic context for “
discretionary goods
”
The group achieved 3.43 billion euros in turnover over the period (-1.1%), slightly better than the expectations of analysts polled by Factset and Bloomberg, and barely worse than in 2021 despite a "
very high basis of comparison
".
Fnac Darty says it has succeeded in doing better than “
the markets in which it operates
”.
“
Our turnover is almost balanced compared to last year, and up 7% compared to 2019
”, reference year pre-Covid-19 epidemic, reacted to AFP its general manager Enrique Martinez.
“
For the moment, we cannot say that we have observed a negative effect on consumption
” due to the period of inflation.
Faced with the general rise in prices, consumers are being pushed to favor spending on fuel, food and everyday goods, to the detriment of businesses selling "
discretionary goods
", i.e. considered non-essential, clothing, high tech or home equipment.
“
We have (…) product categories that worked well during Covid-19, household appliances, and others less well such as ticketing, and there with a changing timing, some products will work better than others
”, detailed the company director.
In 2021, a year of strong recovery in consumption after the Covid-19 epidemic, Fnac Darty had not recorded spectacular growth but “
for the moment, we are seeing good resistance in our activity
”, a-t- he adds.
The group, which achieves 22% of its online sales in the first half (up 4 percentage points compared to the pre-Covid period), says "
to continue its solid cost control thanks to the performance plans which have already made it possible to offset almost all of the inflation
" in the first half of the year.
Read alsoHow consumer giants juggle inflation
The group, in which the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky holds more than 20% of the capital, has also announced that Antoine Gosset-Grainville, vice-president of the board of directors, had resigned.
He took over as head of the board of directors of the insurer Axa in April.
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