"The results of the fourth quarter were largely determined by weather conditions, in particular the high temperature recorded in October, which is the most important month of the year for CCC. This was not conducive to the sale of the fall-winter collection in the first prices. With the dynamically developing commercial floor space, the profitability of stores is crucial to us, which is being increased efficiently by reducing the costs of their operation. A very significant decision made in the fourth quarter of 2018 was to sell CCC Germany, which eliminated the unprofitable part of the business. The product development still remains the most crucial task for CCC, as well as adapting it to the customer's needs and strengthening new sales channels", commented Marcin Czyczerski, Vice President of the Management Board for Finance.

Sales of the CCC Group in the fourth quarter of 2018 amounted to 1.6 billion Polish Zloty (0.37 billion euros), an increase of 25% year-on-year. Gross sales profit at the consolidated level increased by 24% to 818 million Polish Zloty (190 million euros). Gross margin increased both in the offline channel (53.5%, increase by 0.1 pp) and in e-commerce (41.8%, increase by 0.4 pp).

At group level, there was a slight decrease of the gross margin, by 0.4 pp (to the level of 51.1%), resulting from the change in the revenue structure - as a result of the growing share of e-commerce in sales. Costs increased to 673 million Polish Zloty (157 million euros), going up from 458 million Polish Zloty (107 million euros) in quarter four in 2017, mainly due to the consolidation of the acquired companies, an increase in the floor space and the e-commerce scale.

Ultimately, the CCC Group generated a net profit from the continued operations in the fourth quarter in the amount of 126 million Polish Zloty (29 million euros) (-18% year-on-year).

Sales in the e-commerce segment amounted to 328 million Polish Zloty (76 million euros), compared to 199 million Polish Zloty in similar period in 2017 (46 million euros), increasing by 64% year-on-year and already accounting for 20% of the group's revenues. The dynamic development in this sales channel is mainly due to eobuwie.pl.

The total floor space of the CCC sales network at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018 amounted to over 660 000 squared metres and consisted of 1125 stores, out of which more than half was situated abroad.

Revenue in 2018 reached over 4.7 billion Polish Zloty (1.09 billion euros) with the CCC group presence in a total of 23 countries.