(AOF) – The Cafom group, a major player in home equipment in Europe and overseas, has published its unaudited turnover for the first nine months of the 2022-2023 financial year, showing growth of 2% to 301.4 million euros. In a context of household consumption constrained by inflationary pressure, the Overseas division was stable (-0.1%) while e-Commerce activity in continental Europe (+5.4%) benefited from the growing digitization of the sector and the launch of its marketplace.
The Overseas stores division generated stable revenue on a reported basis, at 182.7 million euros, and down slightly (-0.8%) with a constant number of stores.
The Continental Europe e-Commerce division recorded revenue growth of 5.4%, to 118.7 million euros.
The division’s turnover recorded two consecutive quarters of growth, in particular thanks to the rise in power of the marketplace. The latter represents 13% of E-commerce business volume in France (+3 points in the first quarter) and is off to a very satisfactory start in Spain and Italy (6% after a full quarter of activity).
The deployment is continuing in accordance with the roadmap, with the opening of Germany in June and the expansion in Belgium and Switzerland at the start of the school year.
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Concerns remain
According to the Federation of Specialized Trade, Procos, in October 2022, activity fell by 1.5% over one year. Nevertheless, the beauty and health (+ 5.2%) and specialized food (+ 3.5%) activities are dynamic compared to October 2021. The number of visits to the points of sale has been greatly impacted by fuel problems and unfavorable weather. Compared to October 2019, the pre-covid year, the drop in attendance is very sharp (-20.9% in October). Shopping centers and the outskirts are more impacted than city centers with a difference of four to five points.
Several reasons for concern exist for the future. The players are experiencing a very significant scissor effect given the increase in their operating costs while the evolution of demand is very uncertain. Very few brands can pass on the increase in their costs to their selling prices. The federation therefore asks, among other things, to limit the indexation of the Commercial Rent Index to + 3.5% for the rents of all companies in 2023. It also invokes an absolute urgency: cap the price of energy for 2023 and retroact on contracts already signed to prevent the rate of defaults from accelerating.