Eurocash pofit down 17.5% y/y, company plans to close 17 stores

The 2016 net profit of Eurocash fell by 17.5 percent to PLN 190.02, below market expectations of PLN 208 million. The company is planning to restructure its Eurocash Cash&Carry chain. Over the next two years it will close 17 stores, Polish Press Agency reported. Operational profit dropped by 15.6 percent, from PLN 294.5 million to PLN 274.3 million. EBITDA decreased by 7.4 percent to PLN 440.5 million, while revenue stood at PLN 21.2 billion (a 4.4 percent increase), on par with market consensus. The company explained that the revenue increase was caused by the growing number of franchise and partner stores, while the drop in EBITDA was due to lower cost efficiency of the Cash&Carry concept, in turn caused by deflation and by new wholesalers opening up over the past two years.