RIGA - ELKO Group has bucked the downward trend in retailing by announcing a half-year increase in turnover of nearly 50 percent.
The IT product wholesaler is Latvia's largest company by turnover, clocking up 377m euros in the first half of 2008 - a 49% increase over the corresponding period in 2007.
Profits after taxes were 10m euros, which is a remarkable 136% increase compared to the first half year of 2007.
"The main factor, which facilitated the notable increase in profit was thesuccessful activity of ELKO Group in the CIS markets," said group president Egons Mednis in a statement.
"In the still unsaturated markets of these countries we have achieved a 61% increase inturnover in the first half year compared to the first half of 2007. Of course, the performance of ELKO Group is considerably influenced by different economic and political factors both in Latvia and other countries in the markets of which we carry out active operations. In the first half of the year in all of our regions of operation - Central Europe, Eastern Europe and CIS -the demand increased against the background of comparatively low use of computers, becoming one of the key factors driving the company's growth."
Since May of this year the company's bonds with a value of 6.5 million euros have been quoted in the Riga Stock Exchange. Furthermore, in June ELKO became the official wholesaler inthe Baltic countries of Micro-Star International IT products and TomTom navigational devices.
