COMPANIES Metro, the German retailer, signalled Tuesday that its operating profit for the year would miss targets after its stores sold fewer goods in the Christmas quarter than the same period a year ago.
Opening new sites, especially Media Markt consumer electronics shops, helped raise group sales 5.9 per cent to €68bn ($89.7bn) in 2008 compared with the previous year, and Metro pledged that gains in earnings before interest and taxes would be “in line with sales growth”.
