Rami Levi Discount Supermarkets New Branches Increased Sales But Reduced Profits

Published by Jewish Business News by Ilan Shavit

Opening five new stores helped Israeli Rami Levi supermarket chain deal with the decline in the local food market over the past year, Calcalist reported.

Company sales grew 6% to $860 million from $810 million the year before. And while the rest of the Israeli food market experienced a decline of 1.7%, Rami Levi’s store sales increased by 0.5% compared with 2013.

But despite the increase in sales and gross profit — Rami Levi’s operating and net profit suffered from a 12% increase in the costs of selling, marketing, general and administrative expenses, which totaled $153 million.

The increase in expenses is primarily due to the opening of six new branches during 2014 and early 2015.

The company’s net profit in 2014 totaled $23.83 million, compared with $30.48 million in 2013 — a drop of 22%. Net income as a percentage of sales decreased from 3.78% in 2013 to 2.77% in 2014.

The company’s top 5 salaries for 2014 came to $840 thousand combined. Rami Levi himself took out of that $690 thousand.