(AOF) – Thanks to solid growth in the Overseas division (+3.5%) and the resilience of e-Commerce activity in continental Europe (-1.8%), the quarterly turnover of Cafom shows growth of 1.6%, to 110.8 million euros. The Overseas store division generated revenue of 72.2 million in this quarter, up 3.5% compared to the first quarter of 2021/2022. At a constant number of stores (3 stores having opened in the meantime), sales in this region increased by 2%.
Its Continental Europe e-Commerce division posted revenue of 38.7 million euros, down slightly by 1.8% with heterogeneous performance depending on the country of delivery, in an environment marked by strong pressure on commercial margin (transport inflation and rise in the dollar) for its direct product sales activity.
The division’s turnover includes the commissions generated by the Vente-unique.com marketplace in France. In accordance with the roadmap, the international deployment of this marketplace is underway from the second quarter of 2022-2023 with priority given to Southern Europe.
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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%) activity is dynamic compared to October 2021. The frequentation of the points of sale was very impacted by the problems of fuel and bad 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: to cap the price of energy for 2023 and retroact on the contracts already signed to prevent the rate of failures from accelerating.