Paris, France: Stef turnover dropped 1.1% (-1.5% like for like). in the first quarter of 2020 to €793.4m from €802.5m as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Stanislas Lemor, chairman,Stef, said: “Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, we have tirelessly pursued our goal of ensuring consumers have ongoing access to food products through the unwavering commitment of our employees throughout Europe.
“This crisis has clearly demonstrated the role of transport and logistics in the food supply chain, as well as that of the people who keep it running behind the scenes.”
“Our group experienced striking differences in performance in the first quarter of 2020. While our business activities performed well in the first two months of the year, with turnover growth of 3%, they were hit hard in the month of March (-9%) as a result of the lockdown measures introduced in European countries.”
Our group has solid foundations, with a business model spread across all distribution channels, which should help it overcome this unprecedented crisis even though the measures taken to tackle the pandemic will continue to have a significant impact on business in the second quarter.”
Highlights by business unit
Stef France
The chilled products business transported solid tonnage in the first two months of the year and into early March. However, the last two weeks of March were particularly challenging due to the significant disruption caused by the health crisis.
The retail business was buoyed by sustained activity throughout the quarter, with a notable increase in e-commerce distribution channels.
The two businesses most impacted by the lockdown were foodservice—with the vast majority of our customers’ restaurants closed since mid-March—and seafood, due to the closure of wholesalers, the main distribution channel for these products.
Stef International
In an extremely complex environment, only some countries in which the Group operates were able to weather the crisis and maintain turnover growth, largely due to their positioning in the retail segment.
In Italy, turnover dropped by 1.5%, with most business concentrated in the upstream segment. As the first European country hit by the epidemic, Italy was impacted by the shutdown affecting food manufacturers and seafood businesses nationwide, as of late February.
Spain saw turnover growth of 5.5%. However, as in France, solid performance in retail was offset by the drop in foodservice business.
Maritime
Highlights included La Méridionale’s contract securisation to provide departmental port services for Porto Vecchio and Propriano, along with a bid for the next public service delegation (2021-2027) in conjunction with its established partner.
In accordance with government guidelines issued due to the Covid-19 crisis, La Méridionale suspended passenger transport as of 20 March, leading to a drop in travel to and from Corsica affecting its freight activities.
