Food group DIA closed 2022 with a loss of 124 million euros, a decrease of 51.9% compared to the previous year, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) reported on Thursday.
In 2022, a year marked by inflation in the four markets in which the company operates – Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina – sales increased by 9.6% (+5.7% year-on-year) and EBITDA increased (earnings before tax, interest, depreciation) adjusted reached 200 million, an increase of 61.2%.
Net financial debt increased by 35% to EUR 544 million, mainly due to the investment efforts made during the year, the company said in the report sent to the CNMV.
Still, the DIA Group has cited “progress in deleveraging” as one of the other milestones of the year, as the increase in financial debt due to investments was offset to a lesser extent by the positive “cash flow” from operations and by the improvement of working capital.
In terms of operating figures, the group had 5,699 stores at the end of 2022, 4% less than a year ago, as the majority (52%) are franchised. In addition, there were more than a thousand establishments that were subject to works.
With these renovations and new openings, 88% of the proximity network in Spain and 55% of the network in Argentina have been completely transformed, with the group expecting to complete the rebuilding process in 2023.
According to the company, fiscal year 2022 confirmed the reversal in the business trend, with “an improvement in all operational and financial variables”.
As part of its proximity strategy, the group announced in the summer the sale of 235 supermarkets and a warehouse to the Alcampo company for 267 million euros, as these units “did not fit” in Spain, where the goal is to have a single format of commercial area of about 400 square meters.
The company’s second major milestone in 2022, already in December, was the sale of 1,015 stores of the Clarel brand for beauty products and three distribution centers, a deal that was acquired by the company C2 Private Capital SL, in an operation with a total of 60 funds. million euros.
For the DIA group, its proximity value proposal has “proven to be the right one”, especially in a macroeconomic environment such as the current one, with inflation being one of the factors that most defined the year.
Another transformation axis was the reformulation of the own brand. In Spain alone, it added 690 ‘New Dia Quality’ products, increasing the weight of private label products in the basket to 52.6%, a figure that increased by almost four percentage points.
DIA Group non-executive chairman Stephan DuCharme said in a statement that “the efforts of the past three years have served to consolidate a positive evolution of the company, supported by a solid and sustainable capital structure and with the majority shareholder support and industry vision”.
For his part, the CEO of Grupo DIA, Martín Tolcachir, emphasized that after “the major re-routing of the company”, which started in 2019, the company is “at the end of the ‘turnaround’ process”.
He also stressed that in Spain the group gained “market share” and in Argentina, with a performance of renovated stores 18% higher than those not undergoing works, it also advanced in leadership in the Greater Buenos Aires region.
Source: DN
