Polish online store to help Kappahl improve sales?

In FY 2014/2015 the company’s consolidated operating profit amounted to SEK 208 mln (EUR 22.3 mln), down 87 pct y-o-y. Kappahl's acting president and CEO, Anders Düring, attributed the results to a smaller number of stores (store count shrank to 368 from 377 since the end of FY 2013/2014), "store conversions, a weak situation in Finland and major challenges for operations in Poland.”

The company’s Polish sales stood at SEK 314 mln (EUR 33.7 mln), a 10.4 pct y-o-y decrease, which made Poland Kappahl’s worst-performing market. “In Poland, we accelerated our actions to reverse the negative trend. A new country manager took over in September with a clear remit to concentrate operations to fewer towns and to introduce an online store in the first quarter of 2015/2016,” said Anders Düring.

Poland is now the only market where the Swedish retailer operates solely through physical stores, without online presence. As of the end of August 2015, Kaapahl owned 40 locations in the country, down from 47 stores in the previous year. Most of them were situated in shopping malls.