Annual report 2022/23: a brief overview
View a brief overview of the Annual Report for the 2022/23 financial year and download the parts that interest you most.
Word from the Chairman
2022/23 was an eventful, challenging fiscal year, in which we nevertheless continued to evolve. After years of double-digit growth, we experienced a period of slowdown, in a highly inflationary context with spiking expenses for energy and employee compensation, among others. Looking back, we take pride in having achieved a nice revenue growth to over 10.8 billion euros and having consolidated our market share.
We also had to make some difficult but unavoidable decisions. We announced the intention for Dreamland to structurally join forces with Belgian toy specialist ToyChamp, as well as the intentions to restructure Dreamland and Dreambaby and to close one Dreamland and five Dreambaby stores. We are convinced that, with this decision, we have taken the right steps to ensure the continued existence of these formulas.
This fiscal year we will continue to focus on efficiency and implement our strategic plan, with the ultimate aim of emerging stronger from the current period. We will continue to build our smart ecosystem with products and services in four fields that take up a significant part of the family budget. Especially in the field of food and health we have made great strides through investments, participations and acquisitions. In Belgium and Luxembourg, our retail park grew with 13 new food stores and 22 renovations, representing 13,400 m² of additional retail space. Colruyt Lowest Prices, with its unique lowest price guarantee, proved more relevant than ever and was able to win customers and market share again from autumn 2022 onwards.
We also changed course within our field of energy. Our energy holding company Virya Energy reached an agreement to sell its offshore wind energy platform Parkwind to Japanese energy group JERA Green. And in June 2023, we were able to complete the sale of fuel specialist DATS 24 to Virya Energy, which will improve its effectiveness.
We also continued to invest in our own production and in farmland, which we make available to independent farmers for the long term. In mid-2023, we offered the first harvest of mussels from our sea farm in the Cru markets. We also announced the ambition to make our freight transport completely emission-free by 2035. We feel confirmed in our long-standing sustainable course, including the success of our very first Green Retail Bond, to finance existing and new sustainable projects in the coming years.
And finally: on 1 July 2023, I handed over the daily management of Colruyt Group to Stefan Goethaert. The new CEO combines a solid international management experience with the required leadership skills and a value-driven vision. The daily management and future of the group are in good hands with Stefan and his management committee, while I also remain closely involved as Chairman of the Board of directors.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all employees, customers and partners for continuing to trust in us, even in difficult times. Together we continue to write the beautiful story of Colruyt Group.
Jef Colruyt
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Colruyt Group
Word from the Chairman – Who are we? – Our strategy – Our vision on sustainability – Management report – Key figures
Who are we?
Colruyt Group is a family business that has grown over three generations into a retail group with more than 33,000 employees and a diverse portfolio of food and non-food formats, in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Although retail still accounts for more than four fifths of our revenue, we are also active in wholesale, foodservice and production of renewable energy. It’s typical of Colruyt Group that we continue to do many things ourselves. We possess a wealth of experience and expertise in areas such as technology, IT and communication, as well as production and packaging of meat, coffee, cheese and wine.
Shared values, complementary brands and sustainability
Each in their own, authentic way, our complementary brands express the ‘simplicity in retail’ that we represent as a group. In this way, each brand helps achieve our common mission. Each brand also embodies the same group values, a familiar foundation for ourselves, for our partners and customers. So everyone knows what we stand for and this creates trust.
As a value-driven company, we want to make a positive difference with everything we do. Sustainability therefore remains the common thread running through everything we undertake. We also always start with a positive view of people and invest in our employees. After all, as the people grow, our company will grow.
Word from the Chairman – Who are we? – Our strategy – Our vision on sustainability – Management report – Key figures
Activities
We divide our operational activities into retail, wholesale, foodservice, other activities and group support activities. We generate the majority of our revenue in Belgium, but we also have commercial activities in France and Luxembourg, and corporate services in India.
Retail
In the financial year 2022/23, revenue from the retail activities grew by 7,2% to EUR 8.750 million. The retail activities accounted for 80,9% of the consolidated revenue in 2022/23.
Retail trade includes our stores and web shops in own management. Colruyt Lowest Prices, Collect&Go, Okay, Bio-Planet, Cru, Colruyt Prix Qualité, Dreamland, Dreambaby, Bike Republic, the fitness chain Jims, the online pharmacy Newpharma and the fashion retail chains Zeb, PointCarré and The Fashion Store. Retail trade also includes the export activities of Colex and our participations in MyComfort24, Robinetto, Foodbag, Scallog, and Daltix.
Wholesale and foodservice
In the financial year 2022/23, revenue from the wholesale and foodservice segment increased by 9,0% to EUR 1.161 million. These activities accounted for 10,7% of the consolidated revenue in 2022/23.
Retail Partners Colruyt Group groups all wholesale activities in Belgium: the deliveries to Spar, Alvo, Mini Market stores and to smaller independent storekeepers. In France, Codifrance and Degrenne Distribution deliver to the affiliated stores Coccinelle, Coccimarket and Panier Sympa, and to other independent storekeepers. Food service exists of the activities of Solucious and Culinoa in Belgium.
Other activities
In the financial year 2022/23, revenue from the other activities grew by 10,9% to EUR 908 million. These activities accounted for 8,4% of the consolidated revenue.
This segment exists mainly of the turnover of the DATS 24 filling stations in Belgium and of Symeta Hybrid (print & document management solutions). Our participation in Virya Energy (green energy production) is also included in this segment.
Group support activities
This concerns the production departments of Colruyt Group Fine Food and our other supporting services: People & Organisation, Operate & Improve, Learning & Development, IT, Technics, Real Estate, Corporate Marketing, Marketing Communications Services, Retail Services Centre, and Customer Services. In this chapter, we also present our Collibri Foundation.
Retail trade – Wholesale – Foodservice – Other activities – Group support activities
Corporate governance
This chapter contains information about the governance, operation, and internal controls of Colruyt Group and about all aspects of corporate governance. We divide ‘Corporate Governance’ into three main sections. One about governance, supervision and management, another about sustainable corporate governance and a third about share ownership.
Governance, supervision and management – Good/sustainable governance – Shareholding
Corporate sustainability
The heart of our mission is 'Together, we create sustainable added value'. Sustainability is and remains the recurrent theme of all our activities, where we want to set in motion a positive spiral from our economic position in the environmental and social spheres as well. For the third year in a row, we link our sustainability reporting to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. We selected seven objectives and explain our vision, approach, and specific results in this chapter.
SDGs 2 – 3 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 12 – 13 – Sustainability indicators – EU Taxonomy
Financial report
In this chapter, you will find all consolidated financial results of the past financial year such as the consolidated income statement, the overview of the achieved and unachieved results, the balance, the cash flow statement, the statement of changes in equity, the management responsibility statement, and the report of the auditor.
