Total profit of trade chains 31,5 million euros

The Social Council has not yet proposed to the Assembly the return of the working week in shops during the season, and the deadline for this is slowly running out, because the amendments to the Law on Internal Trade should be adopted by June

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Illustration, Photo: Shutterstock
Illustration, Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The Social Council has not yet scheduled a session where the social partners - the Government, employers and trade unions - would decide whether to officially propose to the Assembly that non-working Sundays during the season become working Sundays.

There is a consensus on this, the Minister of Economic Development, Nik Đeljošaj, announced a session until the end of March, but there is clearly a problem in getting support in the parliament, because some parties, the authorities and the opposition have said that they will be against the return of the working week, while the largest, PES and DPS, are still they do not declare. On the other hand, even without the working week, the largest retail chains have significantly increased their revenues and profits over the past year.

Despite the "Stop Inflation" action, which lasted for several months in 2023, when the prices of numerous items were reduced, the five largest retail chains in Montenegro made close to 31,5 million euros in profit, which is almost 13 million more than in 2022. .

Voli, Laković, Merkator, Domača trgovina and Franca in 2023 earned almost 973,5 million euros, over 120 million more than the year before.

The largest income and profit was achieved by the company Voli, which had over 15,5 million in profit, which is an increase of four million. Next comes the company Hard discount Laković with a final profit of close to 10 million euros, which is almost double the 5,5 million profit in 2022.

Domestic trade earned over 2,2 million euros compared to 900 thousand in 2022. Merkator, i.e. Idea, made a profit of over 1,9 million or 1,2 million more, and Franca markets, which Merkator bought last year, had a profit of over 1,7 million, which is a decrease compared to 2022. , for over 400 thousand euros.

The leading retail chains are also the biggest employers in Montenegro, and even in the fourth year in which they did not work on Sundays, they recorded an increase in workers. Last year, 132 more people got a job in Voli, 221 in Laković, 99 in Idea, 70 in Domača tradje, and only in Franca there were 175 fewer people, so the total employment increased by 347 workers.

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