Milan, 10 May 2011 - Meeting today, the board of directors of Autogrill S.p.A. (Milan: AGL IM) examined and approved the consolidated results at 31 March 2011.
The 1st quarter of the year, which is low season for the Group’s business, saw growth in sales of 7.3% (+4.2% at constant exchange rates) in Travel Retail & Duty Free and 2.6% (+1.2% at constant rates) in Food & Beverage.
The recovery of airport traffic seen in 2010 is continuing, whereas the trend in motorway traffic is still sluggish, both in Europe and North America. These differing trends contribute to the better performance by Travel Retail, which is concentrated entirely in airports and is continuing the trend of positive results, with a resilience not even adverse climatic conditions have been able to affect.
Food & Beverage, on the other hand, was penalized by bad weather in the first two months of the year in Europe and above all in North America, where sales in the main channel, airports, nonetheless proved livelier and grew faster than traffic flows. Performance in Europe, on the other hand, was inhibited both by economic stagnation and the relative concentration of the Group’s business in the motorway channel.
Sales in March and April grew in both geographical areas.