Israeli supermarket operator Blue Square saw first-quarter revenues fall by 3.1% to NIS1.76bn (US$421.4m), from NIS1.82bn in the first quarter of 2008.
EBITDA fell to NIS102m (5.8% of revenues), from NIS114m (6.3% of revenues) in the corresponding quarter of last year. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2009 reached NIS503.1m, more or less on a par with the NIS503.6m reported for the first quarter of 2008.
The company said same-store supermarket sales had fallen by 7.1% in the quarter as a result of stores being converted to the Mega Bool discount format.
Blue Square’s president and CEO, Zeev Vurembrand, said: “In this quarter, we present better results considering the increasing competition and the prevailing recession, due to the material strategic actions we have taken.”
Vurembrand said the company planned to introduce a new membership card later in the year and would also be reorganising the headquarters of its BEE Group subsidiary, resulting in additional synergies and reduced costs.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
