Retail: Ceconomy intends to significantly expand its position in online retail

Düsseldorf  - Thanks to its booming online business, electronics retailer Ceconomy (Media Markt, Saturn) has come through the Corona crisis relatively well so far.  Now the retail giant wants to increasingly open its e-commerce platform to other retailers and build it into the largest omnichannel marketplace for consumer electronics in Europe, as it announced on Tuesday.

Despite the corona-related six-week closure of the shops in the spring, sales of the largest German electronics retailer in the 2019/20 financial year ended at the end of September were only 1.8 percent below the previous year's level at 20.8 billion euros.  Because the failures in the stationary business were largely absorbed by the booming online business.

Online sales rose by more than 44 percent to 4.2 billion euros and thus accounted for a good 20 percent of total sales.  The group also benefited from the pandemic-related increased demand for technical equipment for working, learning and living at home.

Nonetheless, the bottom line was that Ceconomy posted a loss of 237 million euros in the past financial year, with depreciation on the investment in the French group Fnac Darty being burdened.

The group is definitely optimistic about the future.  The growth of the online business and the increased demand for home electronics continued to shape the development.  The sales dynamics in October and November are still good and have even accelerated compared to the fourth quarter of the business year.

Ceconomy not only wants to expand its online business, Ceconomy also wants to turn the brick and mortar stores of Media Markt and Saturn upside down.  It is true that the classic markets with an area of ​​1750 square meters on average will continue to be the focus.  But there should also be much smaller “smart” stores, where the focus should be on the quick take away of the products as well as on services.  In addition, there is a shop-in-shop system and flagship stores, in which the latest technologies are to be shown.

The future planning of the group should be made easier by the settlement of the conflict that has been smoldering for years with MediaMarktSaturn's major shareholder, the Kellerhals family.  The relationship between Ceconomy and the now deceased Media Markt co-founder Erich Kellerhals was repeatedly shaped by disputes about the supremacy and direction at Media-Saturn.  These go back to the time before Ceconomy was split off by the Metro retail group in 2017 and some of them were carried out in court.

On Monday evening, however, Ceconomy announced that the group would take over the 21.62 percent stake in MediaMarktSaturn held by the Kellerhals family holding Convergenta.  In return, Convergenta will receive up to 29.99 percent of the electronics retailer and will become its largest shareholder.  Convergenta should therefore also be represented on the Supervisory Board in the future.  "With this agreement, we have left the time of past conflicts behind us and found a good solution for everyone involved," commented Ceconomy boss Bernhard Düttmann.

With the reorganization of the shareholder structure, Ceconomy wants to simplify the complex structure of the group.  The company hopes that this will save millions.