The French-owned electrical group has posted a half-year loss of €42.6 million, similar to last year, with worldwide turnover down 0.7% to €1,628 million.
For Spain and Portugal, unhelpfully the figures are lumped together for the two countries, sales dropped 3.1% to €284 million compared to the first six months of last year on a like-for-like basis, i.e. excluding figures from new stores.
According to the French company, "the markets remain negative" in Portugal, which still is "an important country for the group."
For Spain, Fnac is more positive due to a better economic outlook for the Spanish economy compared to that in Portugal.
Despite a haze of gloom over Fnac in Portugal the company has been opening new stores in the past year with Oeiras, Setúbal and Faro performing well.
When the Faro store opened, the FNAC director of communications and marketing Pedro Mata said that the company "intends to create partnerships with institutions in the region to promote musicians, writers and Portuguese artists."
The three new shops opened in 2014 cost a total of €10 million. The company now has 22 stores in Portugal and only 25 in the more affluent Spain.
Music and films on various formats have suffered a decline in sales due to online music site Spotify satisfying much consumer demand for free online content. DVD sales have been hit by the various movie websites now available online showing up-to-date films at zero or low cost.
In a bland statement for the first half of this year, Fnac’s director Alexandre Bompard pointed out that Fnac will continue its policy of improving operational efficiency and cutting costs.
Shareholders should not be worried that the first half has produced a significant loss for Fnac as the concentration of sales into the second half produces the company’s annual profit, most of it at Christmas time.
At this point last year the company had a net loss of €42.6 million but went on to make €42 million profit in 2014.
