The necessary measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic had a significant impact on the financial performance of Fielmann AG during the first half of 2020. The preliminary results are as follows:
In mid-March Fielmann had switched its regular store operations to an emergency service for system-critical professions. Subsequently, sales in the individual month of April decreased by 70% compared to the same month last year. With the introduction of its Hygiene Standards Fielmann was able to safeguard the health of both its customers and employees and could thus resume its normal service and opening hours at the end of April. Consequently, the business recovered and Fielmann's May sales increased by +157% compared to the previous month (-26% over the same period last year). In June sales increased by +29% over the previous month and reached a level of +3% over the same month last year.
The sales of the first half of 2020 declined to 3.1 million glasses (previous year: 4.1 million glasses), the external sales including VAT and inventory reached €710 million (previous year: €884.4 million). Group sales stood at €611 million (previous year: €758.2 million). We expect our pre-tax profit to be at least €35 million (previous year: €127.6 million).
At the beginning of the second quarter significant cost savings were implemented. The company however continued to invest in the build-up of its omnichannel platform at an unchanged pace.
Based on the visible recovery in the course of the second quarter, we expect external sales of over €1.5 billion (previous year: €1.76 billion) for the full year, group sales of over €1.3 billion (previous year: €1.52 billion) and a pre-tax profit of over €100 million (previous year: €253.8 million). This prognosis is contingent on the assumption that no further restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic will impact our business during the year.