End of the consumer crisis: sales are growing, for some stockists, better than at Christmas

There is an invisible situation in the company.

Marius Giedraitis, CEO of UAB Talga, a European Union customs and warehouse warehousing company, told Delfi that the company is seeing a rather interesting situation today.

According to him, for several weeks, the change of goods in the warehouses has been extremely intense, and his turnover is such that the company did not even see it at Christmas.

“It just came to our attention then. The appliance season was October-November and December, and what we did in two weeks was not so much at Christmas, we haven’t done it at best,” he said openly.

According to him, today the company’s customers are companies like KESKO Senukai, Beko, Topo centras and several other wholesalers, and the company stocks products ranging from water pistols to snow shovels and household appliances.

However, M. Giedraitis noted that increased turnover in warehouses can be influenced by several things, for example, and the simple desire of stores to fill empty shelves.

“I think a lot of this is also due to the fact that there was a big stop over the crown and the stores were closed, and our customers are big supermarkets, and e-commerce at the time weren’t as heavy as in physical stores, and those stores remained empty. Now they are filling up all over Lithuania, so there is a large percentage of why this growth is like this, “he considered, but added that it is no less important that such a boom has been observed for several weeks, which probably means not only the desire to fill in the remaining blanks. shelves, but also potentially increased corporate sales.

“Because if they only filled the shelves, it would only take a week,” he said. “Another thing, people probably can’t fly to Turkey, so they spend money on household appliances, you should probably understand that here.”

M. Giedraitis also explained that products that change rapidly in warehouses can be affected by certain coincidences, let’s say the country currently has a refrigerator season.

“Because when the temperature rises, as a rule, all refrigerators break down, so part of the percentage increase still falls in the standard season,” he said.

According to M. Giedraitis, he cannot speak for all the players in the market, he does not know if the situation in the entire market is the same, but he assured that customers are even shared today with some colleagues in the Kaunas district.

“The point is that there are certain groups of products where some can store, some cannot, we even share with customers.

Suppose that what is in accordance with my need is convenient for me, and what is less in accordance with my need, we give to others. We used to be competitors, but now we are almost partners, ”he said openly about the trends seen today in the company.

He felt the jump, but did not associate it with the growth in consumption.

Delfi also spoke with representatives from more storage companies.

Here, Marius Bubickas, chief logistics officer for ArkAma, whose company works more with European and Asian customers and also offers warehousing services, confirmed that he had noticed a significant jump in merchandise turnover in warehouses after the announcement of the end of quarantine. , but said it was running low. but it could also have been influenced by the fast-paced summer vacation.

“When there was quarantine, everything stopped, the cargo fell, and when it officially ended, also in Europe, everything started to move.”

After the quarantine, the load had increased a lot, everyone was driving, loading, doing, the merchandise arrived, left, the action was considerable and now the second week is calmer.

Of course, this can also be related to the summer holidays, because there are Estonians and Latvians, they close in a few weeks, they bring products from before and now they do not bring anything because they are on vacation. It’s not too bad now, everything is still moving, but not as good as before the virus, “he said.

Admittedly, a company spokesperson added that he did not believe that people in Europe were consuming more today. In his opinion, the jump was due more to corporate requests that had already been made before.

“I think the companies have brought everything that was previously ordered, and now everyone is watching closely, waiting,” he said.

And Mindaugas Samulionis, the project manager of the cargo transport and logistics company Hegelmann, explained that there were more actions in the warehouses of his company during the quarantine than now, because the company is dedicated to food storage.

“We are focused on food storage and knowing what the situation was with COVID-19 and the like, food sales to partners increased dramatically and so did our workloads. Now everything has slowed down a bit, but the revolutions are still considerable, “he said.

Nor did M. Samulionis hide that the turnover of food products during quarantine, in his opinion, was mainly related to the purchase of Lithuanian buckwheat and other durable products.

Another company is UAB Parnasas, which also provides cargo transportation, storage and relocation services.

His representatives told Delfi that he was seeing an increase in billing at the stores, but according to them, it was more related to online sales.

“It just came to our attention then.

Turnover in warehouses is higher only due to online shopping for small shipments / orders / goods and their return, this is how shoppers play: it was not the size of sports shoes, it was not the color of the scarf or the bracelet ”, commented the representatives.

In May, sales grew 14 percent.

Remigijus Štaras, CEO of Topo Centras, was asked what changes he was monitoring in sales and if he felt a recovery in consumption, saying that sales were growing in May.

“The fastest growing and most in demand group of products at Topo Center in May was IT.

Sales of mobile phones and smart watches also grew. Buyers are still motivated to buy these individual media because of the changed lifestyle, the opportunity to work and study remotely.

In May, we also saw a significant increase in demand for home appliances related to home renovation or installation, i. Built-in kitchen appliances, refrigerators, coffeemakers, televisions.

Due to the extremely hot weather, refrigeration equipment sales peaked in June, with some of the most popular models even missing.

According to these changes, consumption in our market is slowly recovering: compared to last year, sales at the Topo Center increased by 14% in May, ”he said.

The crisis lasted two months.

Economist Aleksandras Izgorodinas assured that, according to data from the Lithuanian Department of Statistics, it can be concluded that the crisis of internal consumption in the country lasted only two months.

According to him, in 2020. in May compared to 2019. During the same period, retail trade volumes (excluding automobile and fuel trade) in Lithuania increased by 3.5 percent.

“When evaluating the indicators of retail trade in May, it can be said that the crisis of internal consumption in Lithuania was short-lived: the volumes of internal consumption decreased only in March and April (-3.8 and -15%, respectively), and in May of this year, the retail trade volumes in Lithuania were already low. 3.5 percent higher than a year ago, “he said.

A. Izgorodinas also explained that the result of Lithuanian retail trade in May was extended by the non-essential goods segment.

“Compared to 2019. In May, non-food retail trade turnover increased by 6%. Such increase shows that in May Lithuanian consumers actively spent money on non-essential goods, which is a sign that the market domestic consumer in Lithuania is strengthening and recovering, “he concluded, assuring that the relatively significant jump in non-food retail trade in May had an impact. It improved the expectations of the Lithuanian consumer and the evident stabilization in the labor market.

Predicting what retail sales of non-food items will look like in June, the economist said they should improve further.

“In June, the mood of Lithuanian consumers soared and reached 2017. medium level.

Furthermore, in June, Lithuanian consumer confidence was 4 times higher than in April this year. Lithuanian consumers increasingly appreciate the prospects for the economic and labor market and plan higher spending on non-essential goods. All this indicates that the strongly improved optimism of Lithuanian consumers will have a significant positive impact on the results of Lithuanian retail trade in June, ”he said.

Billing grew 17.5 percent.

Delfi recalls that in May, after easing quarantine conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the turnover of retail companies increased by 17.5%, and the turnover of food and beverage supply companies, in 66.2%, some time ago, announced the Statistics Department.

According to Elta, at that time the turnover of non-food companies at constant prices increased by 30.9 percent, while mail order or online sales decreased by 5.4 percent.

According to preliminary data, the turnover (excluding VAT) of retail companies in May amounted to one billion. At current prices and, compared to April, adjusted by season and business days, at constant prices it increased by 17.5%.

According to the Department, after eliminating the influence of the season and the number of business days, the turnover of companies that market food products at constant prices increased by 3.4%, that of non-food companies, in a 30.9%, the turnover of automotive fuel retail companies, by 23.3 percent

In May, compared to the same period of the previous year, excluding the effect of the number of business days, the turnover (excluding VAT) of retail companies at constant prices increased by 0.9 percent. The turnover of companies that sell food products at constant prices increased by 1%, that of companies that sell non-food products – by 6%, and the turnover of companies that sell automobile fuel decreased by 7.6%.

The turnover (without VAT) of the food and beverage service companies in May amounted to LTL 39.3 million. At current prices and, compared to April, adjusted by seasons and business days, at constant prices, it increased 66.2%. In May, compared to the same period of the previous year, excluding the effect of the number of business days, the turnover of food and beverage service companies at constant prices decreased by 47.9%.