OREANDA-NEWS. December 12, 2012. DIXY Group (RTS, MICEX: DIXY) - one of Russia’s leading retailers of foods and everyday products - today announced unaudited consolidated IFRS results for the first nine month and the third quarter of 2012.

Key Highlights for the Third Quarter and First Nine Months of 2012

• In the first nine month of 2012, the Company opened 258 new stores in Central, North-West and Urals Federal Districts, and increased the selling space by 23% year-on-year to 461,608 sq.m. As of September 30, 2012, the Company operated 1,343 stores.

• Consolidated Revenue increased by 23.3% (11.9% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 35.9 bln (USD 1.1 bln) in the third quarter, and by 56.3% (44.6% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 106.7 bln (USD 3.4 bln) in the first nine months of2012.

• Consolidated Gross Profit grew by 30.3% (18.2% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 10.5 bln (USD 328.2 mln) in the third quarter, and by 68.8% (56.1% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 30.4 bln (USD 977.2 mln) in the first nine months of 2012.

• Gross Margin improved by 160 bp year-on-year to 29.3% of sales in the third quarter, and by 210 bp to 28.5% of sales in the first nine months of 2012.

• Consolidated EBITDA increased by 16.3% (5.5% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 2.0 bln (USD 62.5 mln) in the third quarter, and by 46.7% (35.7% in USD) to RUR 6.2 bln (USD 199.8 mln) in the first nine months of 2012.

• Consolidated Operating Profit grew by 11.8% (1.4% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 965.0 mln (USD 30.2 mln) in the third quarter, and by 41.1% (30.5% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 3.2 bln (USD 103.1 mln) in the first nine months of 2012.

• Consolidated Net Profit increased by 18.1% (7.2% in USD) year-on-year to RUR 280.0 mln (USD 8.7 mln) in the third quarter of 2012. Consolidated Net Profit amounted RUR 781.0 mln (USD 25.1 mln) in the first nine months of 2012 compared to RUR 787.0 mln (USD 27.4 mln) in the first nine months of 2011.

In the first nine months of 2012, the Company opened 224 stores on net basis, which means almost doubling of the store openings compared to the same period last year.

In November 2012, the Company successfully finalized ex-Victoria’s neighborhood stores integration process.

For the first nine months of 2012, 73 ex-Victoria neighborhood stores were integrated into DIXY chain, out of which 65 stores were integrated in the third quarter, while 71 stores more were being integrated as of the end of September.

As of end of November 2012, all 144 stores scheduled for the integration were transferred into DIXY operational chain.

As a part of the neighborhood stores market repositioning strategy, the Company continued renovation of DIXY stores, improvement of their design and optimization of the floor space. For the first nine months of 2012, 47 DIXY stores were refurbished. As of December 1, 2012, 74 out of 76 stores scheduled for this year were modernized.

The assortment optimization across the neighborhood stores and marketing communications stayed in focus during the third quarter. In September, DIXY private label under “fl” brand was launched aiming to increase the loyalty of the customers in mid-term. The undertaken marketing initiatives resulted in 4.5% like-for-like sales growth for DIXY stores in the third quarter of 2012.