Musgrave confident despite 3% sales dip and 7% drop in pre-tax profits

THE Musgrave Group has said that it is well-placed to ride out the storm of the economic downturn, despite posting disappointing full-year results for 2009, including a 3% fall in sales and a 7% decline in pre-tax profits.

The Cork-headquartered retail group – which operates the SuperValu, Centra and Daybreak convenience store chains – reported pre-tax profits of €70 million and sales of €4.5 billion, with the group’s net debt being reduced by €27m last year to €59m.

Despite their decline, group chief executive, Chris Martin said the results represented “a satisfactory performance” for the business.