Trading update for Q3 2018/19 – Growth in the Christmas season quarter and Black Friday sales record

Company announcement no. 13 2018/19
Allerød, 8 January 2019

Trading update for Q3 2018/19
Growth in the Christmas season quarter and Black Friday sales record

Matas A/S generated revenue of DKK 1,093 million in Q3 2018/19 (1 October 2018 - 31 December 2018), up 1.7% (including revenue from Firtal Group ApS from the final completion of the transaction on 13 November 2018) on the DKK 1,075 million reported for Q3 2017/18.

Underlying like-for-like sales, i.e. sales from stores operated by the Group in both Q3 2018/19 and Q3 2017/18, were up by 0.5% in Q3 2018/19.

The digital transformation continued at full speed with Matas’ own digital sales, defined as sales on matas.dk, surging by 51%.

Gregers Wedell-Wedellsborg, CEO of Matas A/S: “We grew sales in the most important quarter of the financial year – in spite of tough competition and generally weak Christmas retail shopping figures. Black Friday 2018 was Matas’ biggest shopping day in the Group’s 70-year history. Growth in online sales once again topped the 50% mark and with Firtal Group now on board, we will be able to further speed up the Group’s digital transformation.”

The average basket size grew by 2.5% to DKK 180 in Q3 2018/19, offsetting the 1.3% decline in the number of transactions compared with the year-earlier period. A total of 5.9 million transactions were completed in the third quarter of the financial year. 

Overall, like-for-like sales for the first nine months of 2018/19 were unchanged compared with the same period of 2017/18.

The acquisition of Firtal Group, the owner of, e.g., helsebixen.dk, was completed in Q3 2018/19. The transaction was approved by the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority on 5 November 2018 with closing on 13 November 2018.

The interim report for the first nine months of 2018/19 will be released on 7 February 2019.

Matas A/S


Contacts

Gregers Wedell-Wedellsborg
CEO, tel +45 48 16 55 55

Anders T. Skole-Sørensen                                               
CFO, tel +45 48 16 55 55                                                

Elisabeth Toftmann Klintholm                                          
Head of Investor Relations & Corp. Affairs, tel +45 48 16 55 48

Klaus Fridorf
Head of Communication, tel +45 61 20 19 97 

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