CCC continues CEE omnichannel expansion

In 2016 CCC aims is to start a new retail chain – in Serbia – and launch a franchise chain in Estonia. Last year CCC entered two new markets – Bulgaria and Lithuania. At the end of December 2015, the retailer had a total of 351 sites abroad. These included 79 stores in the Czech Republic, 61 in Hungary, 51 in Germany, 42 in Romania, 37 in Slovakia, 27 in Austria, 13 in Croatia, 8 in Russia, 8 in Slovenia, 6 in Bulgaria, 5 in Latvia, 5 in Ukraine and 2 in Lithuania.

As of the end of 2015, CCC own stores took a total of 340,500 sqm of space. With Polish and foreign franchise stores included, the store portfolio hit 371,500 sqm. Last year the company opened 124 new stores and shut down 80 locations as its store portfolio grew by 66,000 sqm. This year the new openings are to add 100,000 sqm of space.

The company, which acquired the eobuwie.pl online platform last year in order to give a boost to its regional e-commerce operations, also plans on expanding its online presence across the region. Currently, the group sells online through local sites in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Romania and Hungary. This year the list of the countries will be joined by Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ukraine.

“Central and South East European countries, along with the Baltics, remain to be our core markets,” informs the Warsaw-listed company. In addition, CCC aims to become the CEE online footwear retail leader within the next three years.

Also, within the next two years, namely by the end of 2017, CCC expect to achieve permanent profitability on the Austrian and German markets. “Our experiences of the two first years on the markets show that achieving permanent profitability there is possible, yet it requires more time than in the case of the CEE markets. We expect to increase our like-for-like sales in Germany and Austria by 15 pct and 10 pct respectively,” CCC writes in a report.

According to the company’s strategy, the retailer is to offer own brands, namely the products manufactured in its Polkowice factory or ordered in the Far East, in physical stores, while selling “tens of thousands of shoe models by the most popular global brands” online.

In FY 2015 saw a 40 pct drop in net profit as it fell from PLN 420.3 mln in 2014 to app. PLN 250.5 mln. In Q4 2015, CCC generated PLN 755.4 mln, up from PLN 679.2 mln in Q4 2014.