INTERNATIONAL. Travel retailer and distributor B&S Group has released a trading update which reveals that its retail turnover fell by -85.1% to €3.5 million in the first quarter of 2021. Its overall turnover in Q1 fell by -5.9% to €395.6 million.
The B&S Group retail division includes a portfolio of duty free airport shops, trading under the names B&S Shop Fly, Capi and Crew Shop. B&S Shop Fly stores are located in airports across the Netherlands, while electronic products retailer Capi (run by Royal Capi-Lux, a division of B&S) has shops in airports in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden and South Africa.
In the trading update, B&S reported that travel restrictions across Europe mean that the vast majority of its travel retail stores remained closed early in Q1. About 90% of its airport stores have now reopened with the easing of restrictions, although the company noted that turnover levels across these stores are at less than 20% when compared to 2019 levels.
The company said: “The renegotiated contracts for all our airport concessions as well as the strict cost reduction measures we took mainly related to staff costs, allows us to break even at 50% of 2019 turnover levels.
“With vaccination programmes in place and travel bookings for Summer 2021 starting to pick up, we reiterate our expectation that reaching this level is realistic by end 2021 (not withstanding reinforced travel restrictions).”
Assessing the overall Q1 results, B&S also noted that its adaptability and diversification limited COVID-19 impact in the first quarter and that it is developing new business opportunities on the back of a sharpened strategic focus.
B&S Group CEO Tako de Haan said: “I am pleased to report our Q1 2021 update, a quarter in which the majority of our business demonstrated relentless flexibility in response to the continued impact of the pandemic. Overall, turnover declined by -5.9% when compared to Q1 2020, where we should keep in mind that the impact of the pandemic became significant from early Q2 2020 onwards.
“Our resilience was further aided by the recovery of our international liquor distribution, our continued focus on ecommerce business and our newly-introduced marketing services of which we are starting to reap the benefits already in our food segment.”
He added: “We took further action to streamline and simplify the organisation and focused on accelerating development of our digital business solutions. The progress made so far reinforces my confidence in our ability to adapt swiftly in a changed business environment.
“It’s the driver behind our new financial targets for 2021-2023 and fast-forwards our transition towards a high-tech global brand.”
