TALLINN — Lithuanian-based chain Maxima posted a net turnover of €1 billion in the three Baltic states during the first half of 2010, 11.1 percent smaller compared to the same period last year.

Maxima’s net turnover in Estonia was fell by 3.2 percent to 1.93 billion krooni (€123.3 million). The decrease is the smallest that the supermarket chain had in the Baltics and Bulgaria. The decrease in Lithuania during the first half of 2010 was 13.7 percent, in Latvia 8.5 percent and in Bulgaria 14.8 percent.

Mindaugas Bagdonavičius, CEO of Maxima Group asserted that the large drop in turnover caused by the crisis has ebbed, noting that the turnover during the midsummer week was record-high but in general Baltic residents are “still highly careful when doing their consumption decisions.” The company prognoses better results for the second half of 2010. Bagdonavičius expects the Estonian market to recover earlier than Lithuania and Latvia.

The market of consumer goods in Estonia reduced by 6 percent during the first six months this year, according to Bagdonavičius, but the situation showed some recovery in the second quarter.

The company has currently 216 supermarkets in Lithuania, 129 in Latvia, 53 in Estonia, and 30 in Bulgaria. Maxima has more than 25,500 employees, and 150 were hired this year in Estonia. The supermarket chain said it plans to open another two or three stores this year, although the locations have not been disclosed.

Maxima Group is part of the privately-held V.P. Grupė business empire, one of the most powerful business concerns in Lithuania.

This article is free to view. To read Baltic Reports’ subscription-only articles, click here.