- Specialty retail brand EP: still above the market
- Restructuring at MEDIMAX according to plan
While the respective, international, country-based organisations registered a slight increase in adjusted turnover, business overall decreased. In addition to external factors, Karl Trautmann, member of the ElectronicPartner management team, points to the company’s own realignment as the reason: “We made important decisions in order to bring our specialty market brand MEDIMAX back onto the track to success. We’ve come a long way there, even though it meant an accompanying loss in sales floor area. Meanwhile, the quality campaign 2.0 has proven to be the right path for EP: specialty retail, which is significantly above market again.”
Overall, the buying group completed the financial year with core sales of 1.516 billion euros, which is equivalent to an adjusted loss of 5.1 per cent with respect to the previous year. The European national organisations registered adjusted growth of 1.1 per cent. The sales result for Germany was influenced considerably by the negative overall market development as well as the insolvency of the manufacturer Loewe, which could not be compensated for.
Diverse development in product areas
The development of the TV business and the multimedia area within the buying group was unsatisfactory in 2019. The significance of physical image and sound carriers continued to decrease. The area of large electrical appliances reported a slightly lower result as well. The clear victor among the product groups was the small electronic devices, for which turnover increased significantly, followed closely by the telecommunications business, which also delivered a positive result.
MEDIMAX realignment on schedule
For MEDIMAX, the buying group laid all of the entrepreneurial groundwork. The targeted transformation to a purely franchise organisation is on schedule; the initial locations were transferred to new and existing franchisees. ElectronicPartner will continue on the course in 2020 as well.
Constant success – EP: 8.3 per cent above the market
In the past financial year, the development of the EP: brand was 8.3 per cent above that of the overall specialty retail channel. As a result, the success story of the specialty dealers of the buying group has now reached its fifth year. This development is especially notable in the context of the Loewe insolvency and the lack of a surge in turnover like the one triggered in 2018 due to the conversion to DVB-T2. Karl Trautmann is convinced that “this development and the numerous service awards clearly confirm that our concept offers the best opportunities for success for qualified, specialty electronics retail.”
comTeam turnover increases; growr start-up network expands
In 2019, the technology network comTeam, with around 800 partners, again achieved positive sales performance. Here the partner companies benefited in particular from the overall increase in investments in digitalisation. The growr start-up network also continues to expand and is launching more and more successful entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas.
“Technical progress and the dynamics of the market steadily provide us with new challenges. ElectronicPartner always confronts them head on, with responsibility and conscious decision-making. We are committed to this, and in the future, we will remain reliable partners in an exciting sector,” says Karl Trautmann in conclusion.