VILNIUS - VP Market, the largest retailer and one of the largest corporations in the Baltics, announced that last year's sales amounted to 1.5 billion euros, a 25 percent rise year-on-year.
CEO Gintaras Marcinkevicius said the results were better than expected.
"Last year was successful for us. We not only achieved our sales goals, but exceeded them. We continued our expansion not only in Lithuania, but in Estonia and Latvia as well, and entered the Romanian and Bulgarian markets, where we now have 18 new stores in total," he said.
He added that the company was targeting a 20 percent rise in sales this year.
Sales in all three Baltic states are up. In Latvia, sales reached 371 million euros, up 31 percent year-on-year, while in Estonia, where the company's presence is weakest, turnover increased 4.6 times to 78.6 million euros.
Janis Stakens, chairman of the Latvian subsidiary, said that, despite increasing competition, "sales increased more than was planned."
"Therefore, we can be absolutely satisfied with the results," he said.
Last year VP Market opened 15 new stores in Latvia. This year at least 18 new outlets will appear, and there are plans to expand the logistics complex in Kekava, which would make it the largest logistics center in Latvia.
In Estonia, the company opened 13 new stores, allowing the company to increase its market share to almost 6 percent, the company said. Managing director Arunas Zimnickas said, "We plan to open almost 20 new stores this year. In the second half of the year we hope to open also the first Maxima supermarkets."
He predicted that the retail market would grow at a slightly slower rate this year than in 2005, or approximately 10 percent. "VP Market will however develop at a considerably faster pace than the market in general," he said.
