The chief executive of the world's third-largest retailer, German chain Metro Group, said yesterday conditions were improving for the company after a difficult year, Just-Food has reported.
Dr Eckhard Cordes, speaking after the announcement of the firm's half year results, said Metro was seeing signs of recovery in several markets.
"Even if the crisis is not over yet, we see clear silver linings on the horizon in an increasing number of countries," he said.
Asia has been a key market for the company this year with sales up by 17.3 per cent through to the end of June.
"Asia continued to run to our satisfaction and recorded double-digit sales growth. China is going quarter-by-quarter from strength-to-strength," Dr Cordes said.
Metro recorded a net profit of €58m (US$76.43m) for the first half of 2010, against an €8m (US$10.54m) loss in the same period last year.
The firm reported a 2.4 per cent increase in sales to €31.2bn, but without exchange rate influences actual sales only grew by 0.6 per cent.
In spite of the optimism, net profit for the second quarter dropped by 16.4 per cent to €56m, and Metro pointed to restructuring charges and higher interest payments as the reasons behind the slump.
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