The two FDB-owned retail chains Kvickly and Super Brugsen earned DKr104m less than budgeted in the first eight months of last year, despite an increase in the group’s total turnover. After the first eight months of 2000, FDB (the Danish Cooperative Retail and Wholesale Society) expected that group full-year profits would be roughly unchanged at around DKr100m, from a turnover of almost DKr40bn.
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Internal accounts show that it was Kvickly and Super Brugsen that had emptied the cash box. Kvickly failed to turnaround as planned but made a loss of DKr72.9m, down DKr27.6m on the same period the year before, and DKr50m below budget. Super Brugsen was slated to earn DKr32.2m in the period under review (50% better than the previous year) but instead posted losses of DKr21m .
According to FDB’s managing director, Jørgen Clausen the poor results, especially in Kvickly and Super Brugsen, were due to large investments in modernisation, new buildings and marketing campaigns in that period. Jørgen Clausen took over from Steen Gede as boss of FDB in October 1999, after Steen Gede was fired after disagreement as to how to improve the business’s profitability.
By Penny Leese, just-food.com correspondent
