Zooplus backs higher sales growth

Europe's leading online retailer of pet products, Zooplus, increased its sales in the first quarter of the current financial year by 13 per cent to 363 mio euros. This represents half of the sales growth achieved by the company in the first quarter of the previous year.Zooplus stresses, however, that earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) were significantly up on the previous year at 2.2 mio euros. In 2018 the company's earnings were -3.6 mio euros. Its earnings before tax (EBT) for the first three months of this year at -4.5 mio euros also signified an improvement compared with the first quarter of 2018 (-5.5 mio euros).An improved gross profit margin, up by 1.1 per cent to 28.2 per cent, along with 15 per cent more new customers than in the comparable period a year ago were other reasons why the Zooplus board chairman Dr Cornelius Patt expressed satisfaction with the situation in the first quarter of 2019. "The key element in our success over the coming months will be strengthening sales growth," explained Patt, referring to the recently launched promotions to mark the company's 20th anniversary.