Page 10 - BNE_magazine_10_2020

10 I Companies & Markets bne October 2020
Belarus top supermarket Eurotorg saw revenues for 1H20 down by 2.4% to just over $1bn, but those in local currency up by 7.5%
Belarus top supermarket Eurotorg brushes off the coronacrisis with revenues down only 2% in dollar terms in 1H20
Ben Aris in Berlin
Belarus’ largest food retailer Eurotorg (aka Euroopt) Holding managed to brush off the coronacrisis and put in a decent set of results for the first half of this year that showed only a small decline in revenues in dollar terms, but an increase in local currency terms.
Eurotorg’s revenues fell by 2.4% year on year to $1.1bn in equivalent dollar terms in January-June 2020, the company said, citing audited operating results on September 8.
Eurotorg has built up a 19% share of the Belarusian food retail market as of the end of 2019. The company's business was launched in 1993 in Minsk and by the end of June
this year, Eurotorg operated 879 stores of various formats (hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores)
in the food segment in 325 settlements.
www.bne.eu
However, the company's revenue in national currency terms increased by 7.5% up to BYN2.6bn. The loss in hard currency terms was due to the depreciation of the BYN, which is down by 20% on the dollar year to date as of September 8. Although the value of the ruble is down, net retail sales in Belarusian ruble terms were up by 6% to BYN2.4bn.
Eurotorg runs a nationwide chain of supermarkets that cater to the general population and has been growing rapidly for years. As it provides two out of ten Belarusians with staple products, its business has been more robust than most
and able to weather the worst ravages of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic that has raged in Belarus unchecked.
Like its Russian and Western peers, Belarus' shoppers have increasingly gone online to buy food and drink, where sales