The Dedeman supermarket chain had the highest profit margin and pays the highest corporate tax in Romania, while other market players such as Kaufland, Lidl, Pepco, etc. reported much smaller profits and thus paid much less corporate tax to the country, reports Romanian news portal Ziarul Financiar.
The company owned by the Pavăl brothers reported a turnover of EUR 1.84 billion (RON 9.08 billion) for 2020, up from the previous year’s turnover of RON 8.2 billion and a net profit of RON 1.3 billion. The annual financial report also shows that the profit margin of the Dedeman supermarket chain was 16 percent.
The Romanian news portal has also ranked the country’s biggest retailers by profit margin based on the annual financial results available to the public. The list is topped by Dedeman, with 16 percent, while in the second spot, we find the Poland-based Pepco and France-based Leroy Merlin supermarket chains, both with 9 percent profit margins.
The biggest food and general merchandise retailer, Kaufland (headquartered in Germany), reported a turnover of RON 12.8 billion (EUR 2.6 billion) and a net profit of RON 970.3 million (EUR 197 million), a profit margin of 7.5 percent.
Another retailer originating from Germany, Lidl, had a profit margin of 5.88 percent, while the Belgian Mega Image managed 4 percent (the latter is based on data from 2019). The French Carrefour, Penny, and Auchan retailers allegedly have a low, 2 percent to 0.5 percent profit margin (based on reports for 2019), which raises the question of whether it is worth it for them to operate their retail market chains in Romania.
According to Ziarul Financiar, the net profits reported by Romania’s Dedeman should serve as a reference point for the real profits of multinational supermarket chain operators, but in reality, their reports show much smaller profits, as these companies use every possible opportunity to lower the corporate tax payable in Romania.
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