(AOF) – Jacquet Metals presented sharply declining results over the first nine months of 2023. The specialist in the distribution of special metals shows a net profit, Group share, of 49 million euros, compared to 160 million euros. end of September 2022. The group’s sales amounted to 1.764 billion euros, 16.7% lower than those recorded a year earlier. In the fourth quarter of 2023, changes in market conditions lead the group to anticipate a “significantly lower” level of activity than in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Jacquet Metals cites “weak demand and the erosion of prices, correlative to the slowdown in industrial activity in all of the group’s markets, particularly Germany.” “These trends, particularly marked in the third quarter, are exerting strong pressure on gross margins and distributed volumes,” he specifies.
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Concerns remain
According to the Federation of Specialized Trade, Procos, in October 2022, activity fell by 1.5% year-on-year. However, the activity of beauty and health (+ 5.2%) and specialized food (+ 3.5%) are dynamic compared to October 2021. Attendance at points of sale was very impacted by the problems fuel and unfavorable weather. Compared to October 2019, a 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 gap of four to five points.
There are several reasons for concern for the future. The players are experiencing a very significant jaws 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 in sales 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 emergency: cap the price of energy for 2023 and retroact on contracts already signed to prevent the rate of failures from accelerating.