PROFIT PER EMPLOYEE ANALYSIS (BASED ON FOUR MAJOR ESTONIAN SUPERMARKET CHAINS IN 2010-2014)

摘要

The supermarket industry in Estonia plays a significant role in growth of gross domestic product (GDP), as it constituted approximately 43% of total retail trade in 2015 and growth amounted to 36% during the period of 2010-2015. At the same time, the growth of shopping gross leasable area (GLA) in Estonia plays a significant role in supermarket saturation, because an increase in GLA leads to strong competition and disperses demand between all the retail players. The veracity of this research is supported by a sharp increase in the number of retail stores by different companies and supermarket chains. The purpose of this study is to analyse the formation of profit per employee of four major Estonian supermarket chains during the period 2010-2014 by using publicly available annual reports. Two methods - efficiency matrix analysis and ranking of supermarket chains based on overall performance efficiency indicator (OPEI) - were selected by the authors. Primarily, such methodology was chosen due to its multidimensional specifics and the fact that it can provide a systematic and comprehensive picture of a company's financial position and all financial ratios to be analysed in a clearly expressed relationship. In general, it was found that profit per employee fell in regard to both Maxima and Selver during the 2010-2014 period. In the case of Rimi, it was volatile and increased in 2013, but it decreased in 2014. Only in the case of Prisma did this component show positive growth during the 2010-2014 period. According to component analysis, profit margin mainly impacted changes in profit per employee for all the companies investigated. According to the OPEI, Selver had the highest performance efficiency overall, aside from 2014 when Prisma was the most efficient as it had the highest increase in profit per employee in 2014.