(AOF) – The Parot Group posts a consolidated net profit of 1.9 million euros for the first half of 2023, compared to 1.5 million a year ago. The specialist in the distribution of private and commercial vehicles specifies that its Ebitda reached 7.7 million euros compared to 4.9 million a year ago, an increase of 57%, for a turnover increased from 181 to 203 million. The group says it is “confident about its growth prospects, the maintenance of its operating margins, and the resilience of its results for the year 2023”.
“The increase in volumes and the continued progression of our Service activities are contributing positively to our operational performance, in our two areas of activity, and with constant attention paid to controlling our costs,” explains Alexandre Parot, CEO. “At the same time, we worked to improve our debt ratio which further gained 0.8 points compared to the end of December 2022.”
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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.