Metro reduces cash & carry activities

Withdrawal from multiple countries

According to Lebensmittel Zeitung, Metro is to withdraw
from Bulgaria, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Japan, where Metro suffers from severe losses. Earlier the cash &
carry activities in the United Kingdom were also sold. A retreat from China
would not be up for discussion: Metro is planning further investments in that
region in the future.

The decrease of the number of countries where
Metro – an umbrella company for Makro, Saturn and Media Markt – is active is in part
forced: the company has insufficient financial power to support the expansion
in 28 countries at the same time.

The most work is to be done in Germany: in the
first quarter of 2013 sales of cash & carry dropped by 4.0%. To see the company
grow again, management has set sixteen priorities, such as
simplifying processes to finding new synergies.

New reshuffle at top of Metro

The planned reorganisations go hand in hand
with a shuffle of management: Antonio Baptista of Real gets transferred to the
parent company to get the slacking non-food department in order. He will have
to do this country by country and while reporting directly to CEO Olaf Koch, who has
also taken control of cash & carry.

The company also wants to expand e-commerce as
one of the pillars for future growth. That will not be an easy task, as
it could cannibalise a part of the existing activities in the shops.