Annual Report 2023/24
Quick entry
A whole lot of wholesale. With the sCore strategy,
that’s what METRO stands for, today more than ever.
That means not only: more own brands, more delivery
and more digitalisation. But also: more passion,
more commitment and more team spirit.
Wholesale. More than ever.
Hello Steffen, what word do you associate with the past financial year?
That’s an interesting question! And not so easy to answer, because the last financial year was as colourful and varied as our industry itself. My visits to our customers and the events we held and took part in were particularly memorable for me. There was the celebration of METRO’s 60th anniversary, the Rolling Pin Convention, the Gourmet Festival and our new ‘Chefs in Town’ event, which brought a breath of fresh air to the industry. Our partnership with our customers is important to us. They’re the ones who keep city and town centres such lively places, by creating special moments for their guests. And with our products and services, we support them in doing this. There’s no doubt about it: METRO has never more fully stood for food wholesale than it does today. So, ‘more’ is the word of the year 2023/24 for me: more wholesale, more productivity, more customer value.
Dr Steffen Greubel
There’s no doubt about it: METRO has never more fully stood for food wholesale than it does today.
An eventful year indeed. What were your personal milestones?
Our sCore strategy puts our customers at the centre of everything we do. To make sure restaurateurs and independent retailers find exactly what they need, we’re constantly optimising product availability, fine-tuning our price models, reviewing our product assortments and expanding our own brands. At the same time, we’re systematically increasing our delivery offerings. The acquisition of the FSD specialists Fisk Idag in Sweden, Donier Gastronomie in Finland and Caterite Food and Wineservice in the UK were real milestones for us in this area. I’m also especially proud of METRO MARKETS: in the 6 most important HoReCa countries, we almost doubled our sales through the offerings on our online marketplace.
Are you going to continue with the current strategy?
Absolutely. sCore is making an impact! METRO hadn’t seen sales growth on the scale of the past 3 years for some time. This is a validation of our growth course. And in these challenging economic times, we want to continue to improve our productivity as well. We’re achieving our sCore targets, increasing the share of sales with strategic customers, strengthening our own brands and improving product availability. Our delivery business and digital sales share are also growing. So, we’re definitely staying on course!
Dr Steffen Greubel
We’re achieving our sCore targets, increasing the share of sales with strategic customers, strengthening our own brands and improving product availability.
Were there any setbacks?
Of course, not everything always runs smoothly, and overcoming challenges often takes perseverance. We and our customers have felt the volatile market environment and price increases acutely. The results therefore don’t yet reflect the growth in sales to the expected extent. Situations like this test our resolve to follow through with our aims. What’s important is to never lose sight of our goal and to build on our team spirit. We promote this in a targeted way with our corporate values, the METRO Fundamentals.
What lies ahead?
We want to further optimise our wholesale locations and thereby increase our productivity. We’re in an excellent starting position: we can expand the existing stores into combined delivery locations in a capital-efficient manner. To do this, we’re continuing to invest in our multichannel model consisting of wholesale stores, delivery and digital offerings – for sustainable growth. And in 2025, we’re going to give our share of sales with own brands another real boost.
What do you wish for METRO in the next 60 years?
(laughs) It’s really hard to see 60 years into the future! But for the next 5 years, we’ve set ourselves a clear goal: we’re going to pull out all the stops to achieve our sCore Ambition by 2030. With the momentum from our anniversary year and our focus on our core business, I’m confident we will succeed. The anniversary showed us our true strength as ‘ONE METRO’. We stand for wholesale. More than ever.
Key Figures 2023/24
Sales
€ million
Strategic customer sales share
Adjusted EBITDA
€ million
Own brand sales share
FSD sales share
Employees 2023/24
(average number of people)
85,963
Women in management positions
at levels 1 to 3 (including store managers)
Reduction of CO2
in % compared to 2011
51.9
Food waste reduction
in kg per m2 of selling and delivery space compared to base year 2017/18 in %
26.9
THE Management Board of Metro AG
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