In 2020, Dutch online supermarket Picnic saw its turnover almost double, thanks in part to a strong expansion in Germany. However, the company is not yet profitable: its losses amounted to almost eighty million euros.
Growth more important than profit
In the year 2020, Picnic’s revenues rose from 232 million euros to 455 million euros, an increase of 96 %. Sales in the Netherlands grew by 80 % and in Germany by 252 %, while the online supermarket also took its first steps in France.
In terms of profitability, Picnic made little progress: the operating result was 77.5 million euros in the red. A year earlier, the operating loss was still 82.5 million euros. The net loss amounted to 44.8 million euros, RTL Nieuws reports.
Mountain of cash
Since Picnic still has a very strong balance sheet, the red figures are hardly a concern for the company. The solvency (equity divided by balance sheet total) did drop from 80 % to 56 %, but at the end of 2020, the company still had 90 million euros in cash. Moreover, in September of last year, Picnic raised another 600 million euros in growth money.
It is therefore expected that the company will accelerate its investment strategy in the coming years. In 2020, the web supermarket will pump some 90 million euros into expanding its activities, including new delivery vehicles and distribution centres. Naturally, the number of employees also increased significantly: calculated in full-time equivalents, it rose from 510 to 937.
