“We have the sun on the street and generally positive psychology. Don’t worry too much. Problems may be right in front of us and we haven’t seen them yet. OUR Buy she is waiting for a reason to improve. Everyone in the financial community thinks there is something behind the policies that are put in place to solve problems.” With these words, the leader of the group jumboApostolos Vakakis, once again appeared pessimistic about what should happen despite his company noting turnover about 950 million euros and a profit of almost 250 million euros in 2022, while the first quarter of 2023 also started with a very big increase in sales. However, he argued that the 33% growth recorded in the first quarter was too hard to sustain, arguing that we were still “on our honeymoon.”

Height inflationthe cost of money, political uncertainty, the inability of consumers to access bank financing, as well as labor shortages are factors for Mr. Vakakis that make this year even more difficult from 2022 onwards.

He, in fact, when asked about this while commenting on financial results with analysts about whether the company has a plan for expansion to other countries, such as Hungary, indicated that “when the environment is extremely inflationary and unstable, then it makes no sense to postpone your plans and don’t speed them up. However, the group plans to open a total of five new stores in the two years from 2023 to 2024, as well as the launch of an online store in Romania, which was delayed last year. There are plans to open another store this year in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, one in Iasi, Romania, and two in Bucharest and Oradea in 2024, and one in Nicosia in the last quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024.

Asked to comment on the recent opening of the first Jumbo store in Israel, a Fox Group franchise store, Mr. Vakakis commented, “We had a few nightmares with the first store. There is an appetite, but the later the next one opens, the better. He added that the local partner still had a lot to do. It is recalled that one of the main problems in the operation of retail in Israel is that the law requires that prices be put down for each product separately, as was done here many years ago.

Finally, Mr. Vakakis ruled out the possibility of the company obtaining a new loan after the early redemption of the joint bond, while he postponed the decision on interim dividends to the second half of 2023.