Twenty years ago, in 2001, he made his debut in the world of e-commerce with the “Esselunga a casa” campaign, with the logo inviting you to “click the tomato”. In the first half of 2021 it achieved sales of 4.332 billion euros (+ 6.7% compared to the corresponding period of 2020), a growth certainly influenced by the limitations linked to Covid19 imposed on mobility that had penalized the first half of 2020, but also by the acceleration on the company’s e-commerce policy. Which was defined “An old concept” by the chief sales officer Carlo Molaschi a little over a year ago, in favor of a “multi-channel perspective”.
Having said that, in the year of coronavirus emergency in which the web was at the center of consumer requests, Esselunga has adapted by diversifying: among the initiatives of lockers in hospitals and new services such as Amici neighbors, Esselunga has above all expanded to cities without their own physical shopping malls in the summer. The Ligurian Riviera, Tuscany but also Lazio and Emilia Romagna as well as the mountain villages: where there were tourists, Esselunga has “extended” its “Esselunga a casa” service born twenty years ago. And it was a success.
Not just e-commerce: discounts were provided to customers for 791 million, up by over 100 million compared to last year and the relative convenience in sales prices was maintained with 2.6 percentage points below the national market average ( Source Nrps Nielsen). With shelf prices falling by 1.7% (and on the other hand, it received 1.1% inflation from suppliers). The final net profit, in this first quarter, amounted to € 221.1 million (5.1%) compared to € 128.5 million (3.2%) in the first half of 2020, with a growth of 72%.
Investments, on the other hand, amounted to 180.3 million. The net financial position was negative for 1.8345 billion and without the impact of operating leases it improved by approximately 10 million compared to 31 December 2020. It was negatively affected by the closure of the five-year Fìdaty campaign. It is also announced that Esselunga has closed the existing liquidity credit lines expiring in August 2022 and at the same time signed three Revolving Sustainability-Linked credit lines for a total of 300 million with a duration of 5 years, linked to the achievement of two objectives of the sustainability 2020-2025 of the group.
The margin of the credit lines is in fact linked to the climate change targets, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2025, and to that of education, with over 100 million euros in school materials that will be distributed to Italian schools between 2018-2025 through the “Amici di Scuola” initiative.