Finance

A customer didn't always want to keep his shopping list in his hands in the supermarket and had a brilliant idea for the shopping cart.

Shopping lists are indispensable for weekly bulk purchases. How else are you supposed to remember everything? But getting it out of your pocket again and again can be quite annoying. A customer now had a brilliant idea – and ALDI (note in Austria HOFER) responded enthusiastically!

According to a survey by the Federal Association of the German Grocery Trade, three out of four citizens think about what they need when shopping in bulk. 84 percent of them still write a shopping list in the traditional way, while only one in five uses an app for it.

A supermarket customer had the brilliant idea of simply attaching clips to the trolley. “Can you attach a clip to the car so that customers can attach their shopping list to it? Then you would have your hands free and always keep an eye on the purchase,” the customer writes to ALDI-Süd.

An employee saw the posting and responded promptly: “That would be really practical. I would be happy to pass your request on internally.” But that's not all, the customer also uses the ALDI app, in which one can create a shopping list, and has another idea: The app could automatically adapt the list to the range, i.e. the route taken.

For example, fruit and vegetables, which can usually be found at the beginning, are at the top of the list. The employee also promised to pass this idea on.

Vienna. The Green Ministry of Health is presenting the first draft for a mandatory declaration of origin for food. In public and private canteens (or, depending on the reading, even in pubs) it should be clear in future where the primary ingredients beef and eggs come from. Too little, criticize the Austrian farmers and the coalition partner ÖVP – the regulation falls short.

After all, in its government program, Türkis-Grün agreed on a mandatory declaration of origin for milk, meat and eggs in canteens and processed foods from 2021. There is nothing to be read about this in the current draft. One reason for this are restrictions under European law, as the government was also confirmed by an opinion by European law expert Walter Obwexer.

Legal options not exhausted

The primary ingredient regulation of the EU only allows national markings of origin for certain products, according to his judgment. But the possibilities have not yet been exhausted. “Austria has its limits, but there are possibilities,” said Obwexer. Countries could enforce a mandatory declaration of origin for beef, eggs, fruit and vegetables.

“I expect an implementation for processed products as well,” urges Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP) to the Ministry of Health. There it was only said on Wednesday that the draft regulation was “still in vote”. Only when these talks are over will the planned regulation be sent to Brussels. (except)

Rainer Trefelik: “Companies reach their limits when it comes to liquidity”

Austria has been in a tough lockdown again for a month. With a few exceptions, the shops are closed. Trade chairman Rainer Trefelik is pushing for an opening on February 8th. The government had announced this date as the expected opening date, but will not announce details until next week.

The companies are reaching their limits when it comes to liquidity and have been put off too often. “Their patience is slowly running out,” said the sales representative.

Each additional week of lockdown worsen the liquidity shortage, Trefelik said on Wednesday, according to a broadcast. “The damage that is caused is partly irreparable.” It is therefore necessary to take opening steps as quickly as possible.

The trade association recently assumed a loss of sales of around EUR 900 million per lockdown week in the non-food trade. At the moment, only supermarkets, drugstore chains, tobacconists and pharmacies are open.

“Reliable opening plan”

The rest would “finally” need a perspective, said Trefelik. “And this must be a reliable opening plan starting on February 8th,” the trade chairman demands.

FFP2 masks have been mandatory in retail since Monday. Trefelik sees the preparations made to ensure a safe unlock. “The clusters are formed elsewhere. All statistics confirm that the infections occur primarily in the family and leisure time, but not in the trade,” said the sales representative.

Own goals exceeded in infrastructure financing

Kommunalkredit Austria, which was privatized in 2015, was one of the first banks in the country to announce its preliminary 2020 annual results on Wednesday. The profits have grown. Despite adverse circumstances, the goals were significantly exceeded, says the board of directors. One focus is infrastructure and energy finance. The bank did not have to contend with bad loans in 2020 either. The share of non-performing loans has been constant at zero since 2015.

Notwithstanding a corona crisis-related decline in new transactions on the European infrastructure market, the Vienna Institute reported a new business volume of EUR 1.1 billion for the past year, an increase of 11 percent. After some significant increases in the interest result, according to preliminary data, the operating profit according to IFRS accounting was EUR 46.5 million, almost 40 percent more than in the previous year.

The net profit is provisionally shown at EUR 36.7 (previous year: 29.6) million. According to UGB / BWG accounting, the annual surplus after taxes increased by 3 million to 33.3 million euros.

The bank will publish the final figures on March 24th, when it will also provide an outlook for the current year. Kommunalkredit Austria is the “healthy” part of the old Kommunalkredit, which had to be split up at the end of 2008 after the emergency nationalization in the financial crisis. The dismantling part lies in the continued state KA Finanz.

An increase was recorded after the waiver of shutdowns expired at the end of June.

Electricity pylons.

The shutdown of gas and electricity increased again from July – after the corona-related waiver of shutdowns expired. In September, according to E-Control data, a high and again almost the level of the previous years was reached. In October and November it went down again. The shutdowns in these two months were also below the values of the previous years.

In the spring of the corona crisis, the energy industry voluntarily waived the shutdown of electricity, gas or heat in the event of default for households and small corporate customers. This was valid from March 25th and expired at the end of June. There are now only individual solutions.

In the period from April to July there was an extreme decrease in shutdowns, said Christina Veigl-Guthann, head of the end customer department at E-Control in a webinar by the regulatory authority on Wednesday.

In October and November the shutdowns were again below the value of September and also the average of previous years. In April there were just 79 power cuts and 30 gas cuts. In July, the number of power cuts due to breach of contract disconnections was around 1,260, in September around 2,370 and in November around 1,800. In the case of gas, there were 460 in September and around 250 in November. In 2019 as a whole, there were around 32,900 power cuts or 0.65 percent.

Installment payment agreements

Part of the Corona package from spring were also installment payment agreements, which were used around 7,200 times for electricity, as well as reductions in advance payments (around 24,000) and deferrals (19,120). In the case of gas, the numbers were significantly lower with around 2,650 installment payment agreements and around 8,300 deferrals.

The waiver of reminder fees, default interest and other collection costs such as debt collection also played an important role, according to Veigl-Guthann. These could amount to a multiple of the originally outstanding amount. Basic services and prepayment meters also played a minor role in 2020.

“Last reminders” went back over the course of the year after a jump in July. However, one cannot conclude from this that there are no payment problems. Customers would probably also fall back on savings to settle the bill and the e-industry may also offer more goodwill solutions. But there are no numbers for this.

There is room for improvement in terms of exemption from green electricity subsidy costs for low-income households. In 2019, these 130,000 beneficiaries made use of it, which was less than half of those entitled.

Corona pandemic and lockdown as sales drivers. Sales increased by 20 percent to 632 million euros.

The strong demand for games and puzzles in the corona pandemic gave German game manufacturer Ravensburger a surge in growth in 2020. Compared to the previous year, sales rose by 20 percent to 632 million euros, as the Upper Swabian company announced in Ravensburg on Wednesday. CEO Clemens Maier said that the year of the crisis was good. He did not want to make a forecast for the current year.

28 million Ravensburger puzzles were sold last year – around 32 percent more than in the previous year. According to Maier, Corona had triggered a little hype about the rather “quiet hobby”. But the trend towards puzzles was already noticeable before the pandemic. You have produced up to the capacity limit.

The group was also able to score points with board games. Classics were particularly popular here. 25 million games from the manufacturer with the blue triangle have been sold worldwide.

Group sales down, pre-tax profit 2019/20 higher than in the previous year.

The holding company Leipnik Lundenburger Invest Beteiligungs AG (LLI), which belongs to Raiffeisen, posted higher pre-tax profit in the 2019/20 financial year with declining sales. Like practically the entire economy, this group was also under the stress of the pandemic.

There is currently substantial investment in the milling business abroad, specifically in locations in Germany and Poland. The vending machine business suffers due to travel restrictions and home office.

In total, LLI sales fell by 3.8 percent to EUR 1.078.35 billion in the 2019/20 financial year. According to the company, earnings before taxes (EBT) increased by 29.7 percent to EUR 48.28 million.

The result is thus below the values that were achieved two or three years ago, which at the time was, however, due to one-off effects. Participations were sold.

CEO Josef Pröll sees LLI, with its two operational pillars, mills and cafe + co, positioned as sustainable and crisis-resistant. As is well known, LLI is the largest European flour producer. The GoodMills Group, headquartered in Vienna (sales: EUR 868.42 million, 24 mills in seven country organizations) reported a slight decline in demand from large bakers, but there was more demand for branded and packet flour as well as for Durum (pasta).

New production lines

The pre-tax result in this division grew by 15.8 percent to EUR 30.24 million. In Germany, the new mill in Krefeld will be completed in summer 2021. In addition, new production lines for couscous and bulgur as well as for high-protein flour are being built in this market. According to LLI, an expansion and modernization project for the mill in Kutno will also start in Poland this year with investments of EUR 21 million.

The vending business (machines) was affected by the restrictions of the corona crisis. Due to declines in travel with closed restaurants and hotels and less frequency at airports, train stations and rest stops and because of the home office in many companies, the consumption of vending machines has fallen sharply.

The turnover of the cafe + co group has thus decreased by 12.3 percent to EUR 209.93 million, and the division result has also declined. Cost saving programs are running here. In the coming months, however, new smartphone payment apps will also be rolled out for paying at coffee machines and the like.

Company: “Working flat out on a solution”.

The listed crane arm manufacturer Palfinger, based in Salzburg, continues to fight a massive cyber attack. “The attack is still ongoing, we are working flat out on a solution,” said company spokesman Hannes Roither on Wednesday afternoon when asked by APA. Many IT staff and forensics experts are currently busy with the attack, and the authorities have now been involved.

Questions about the type and extent of the attack and the possible consequences for the company initially remained open. “I can't say more at this point,” explained Roither. Palfinger AG informed about the attack on Monday.

Accordingly, a large part of the global locations was affected. According to information on the company's homepage, the IT infrastructure is disrupted – such as sending and receiving e-mails or ERP systems.

Tourism is suffering massively from the corona pandemic. In 2020, the number of overnight stays in Austria fell below the 100 million mark.

As preliminary data from Statistics Austria show, tourism in Austria was thrown back “to the level of the early 1970s”. In 2020, the number of overnight stays fell below the 100 million mark for the first time in 50 years. The number of vacationers has halved due to lockdowns and travel warnings.

The minus is 35.9 percent and has fallen from 152.7 million to only 97.9 million. Compared to the previous year, around 55 million overnight stays were missing.

Commercial and private holiday homes managed best with declines of 22.6 and 23.6 percent respectively. Although more foreign tourists (15.1 million) than domestic tourists (9.94 million) were counted in 2020, the number of visitors from abroad has more than halved (minus 52.7 percent). The number of holidaymakers from Austria decreased by almost a third (minus 30.5 percent).

There were considerable differences between the federal states. The largest drop in overnight stays was observed in Vienna, where there was a drop of 74 percent. The federal states traditionally characterized by domestic guests such as Carinthia (minus 17.1 percent), Styria (minus 24.5 percent) and Burgenland (minus 27.2 percent) recorded only minor losses.

Only in Carinthia was there a positive development compared to the previous year: There was an increase of 5.4 percent in overnight stays by domestic guests. In the federal states with the strongest tourism, Tyrol (minus 33.4 percent) and Salzburg (minus 32.3 percent), around a third fewer overnight stays were registered than in the record year 2019.

Government aid “too timid and too slow”. Intersport-Verbund steps in itself: No payments are due for dealers until 2022.

The complete failure of the winter season including the lack of tourists in the ongoing lockdown brings the over 100 Intersport retailers in Austria to their financial limits. Since government aid would arrive “too timidly and too slowly”, the Intersport association is now stepping in itself with a support package for sports retailers, the company announced on Wednesday.

All deliveries of winter goods from the warehouse in Wels can be valued for 12 months up to the year 2022. “Until then, no payments are due for the dealers,” said Intersport Austria boss Thorsten Schmitz according to a broadcast.

Storage issues are also a challenge

In addition, the dealers can send goods back, which should ease the situation on site. “Because not only the financial aspect is decisive – the warehouse issue is also a major challenge,” said Schmitz.

The corona-related failure of the winter season poses major challenges, especially for retailers in the tourist regions, with sales declines of up to 95 percent. An opening of the shops from February 8th is increasingly unlikely.

Intersport is represented in Austria with 104 dealers at over 280 locations and employs around 3,700 people.