Excellent results in ICA Sweden

CEO Per Strömberg, ICA. Photo: ICA
CEO Per Strömberg has reasons to be satisfied with the results in ICA so far in 2020 – especially in Sweden, its home market. Photo: ICA
By Reidar Molthe

25 August 2020 13:19

Excellent results in ICA Sweden

Covid-19 does not have a negative effect on everyone. The grocery giant ICA has never done as well as it does now - in Sweden. The reason is, simply put, that because of Corona, customers eat more at home.

ICA also takes market shares from competitors Axfood and Coop. And online shopping is growing by as much as 114 percent. ICA Baltics, however, is not doing as well and is losing market shares.

  • The Group's net sales increased by 4.6 percent to SEK 31,924 M (30,529)
  • Operating profit excluding items affecting comparability increased to SEK 1,452 M (1,365)
  • Profit for the period amounted to SEK 976 M (520)
  • Earnings per share amounted to SEK 4.83 (2.56)

The results are so good that the group management proposes an extraordinary dividend of SEK 6 per share.

Climate work continues with undiminished vigor

The ICA Group's greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by 71 percent in a rolling 12 months compared with the base year 2006, ICA claims.

During the reporting period, emissions have decreased thanks to a gradual increase in the use of refrigerants with a lower climate impact at retail level, as well as the transition to renewable electricity in Rimi Baltic.

Greenhouse gas emissions are continuously declining, and the trend indicates that ICA Gruppen will achieve the goal of reducing emissions by 70 percent in its own operations by the end of 2020.

The ongoing pandemic continues to strongly affect the market, customer behavior and thus all parts of the business. While ICA Sweden is benefiting from the situation, with increased sales and earnings, Rimi Baltic have had a much tougher quarter.

E-commerce grows, but is not profitable – so far

The very high growth of e-commerce continues at an accelerating pace. The downside is that ICA, like many others, does not make money on e-commerce. In any case, the retail giant believes that e-commerce will grow strongly in the foreseeable future.

ICA maintains that the company's total investments for 2020 are estimated at approximately SEK 5 billion, of which SEK 2.6 billion within Ica Fastigheter.

Major investment projects include acquisitions of logistics property, future store locations, investments in the Group's e-commerce, IT investments, new warehouse in Riga and new stores.

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