Investor Relations

Real

Content overview

Profile
Financials
Sales development
Regional sales breakdown

Profile

Real stands for a wide range of branded products, high levels of competency in freshness and good value for money. Under the umbrella of Real SB-Warenhaus GmbH, the company manages around 350 hypermarkets in Germany as well as another 85 in four Eastern European countries. The Real brand profile is aimed at both young families with children and the 50plus generation.

Real generated most of its sales in Germany, Europe’s largest market. The brand’s home market is particularly demanding, especially in food retailing. As a result of economic and social changes, the share of private consumer budgets that flows into retail is declining continually. This applies in particular to everyday items like food. Growing demand and tighter supplies of raw materials in various product areas escalated world market prices, especially for milk and grain products. This led to an increase in prices for these products from the middle of 2007 and negatively impacted customers’ willingness to buy.

With its extensive network of large-scale hypermarkets, Real clearly has the profile of a classic full assortment retailer. On selling space between 5,000 and 15,000 square metres, the sales brand offers around 80,000 food and nonfood items. The focus lies on food. Here, the range of goods offered covers well-known branded products as well as strong own brand products, including around 1,500 “TIP” products sold at discount prices. Besides household goods, the broad nonfood programme includes consumer electronics, books, audio media, textiles and shoes as well as products for sports, games and leisure activities.

Real emphasises a well-structured, attractive presentation of goods. Already implemented in many German stores, the shop-in-shop concept is opening additional possibilities. The new product worlds were developed based on consumer surveys and respond to customer suggestions. Modern-looking markets with a friendly atmosphere are the result. They demonstrate the positive transformation of the hypermarket concept.

The balanced mixture of self-service and service counters makes Real stand out from discounters as well as competitors in the hypermarket segment. Expert customer assistance is particularly important.

For this reason, the sales brand made significant investments in employee training in 2007. The e-learning opportunity introduced in the first half of the year supports each and every employee efficiently, flexibly and individually.

Financials

Financials (€ million)	2007	2006	2005 *
Sales	11,003	8,775	9,922
Change in %	25.4%	--	-7.5%
Change in % - pre-currency	25.0%	--	-8.4%
EBIT	-16	19 **	-12
Change in %	--	--	--
Capex	128	291	266
Operating RoCE	2.5%	3.6%	2.2%

Operating Statistics	2007	2006	2005 *
Number of stores	434	442	592
Selling space (1,000 sqm)	3,103	3,158	2,693
Change in %	-1.7%	17.3%	-6.6%
Average store size (sqm)	7,150	7,145	4,549
Sales/Øsqm (€)	3,515	2,999	3,558