Europris

Earnings Release • Mar 16, 2020

Coronavirus: operational status from Europris ASA

Coronavirus: operational status from Europris ASA

16 March 2020

Europris initiated its crisis plans at an early stage to deal with the

extraordinary situation. No extensive infection outbreaks have been registered,

but one shop has been temporarily shut down as a result of infection. The

employees are being well looked after.

At the same time, a sharp rise in sales of groceries and other necessities from

the chain stores in the wake of the virus outbreak emphasises the social role

Europris is in a position to play at a critical time. Such commodities have

accounted for 75-80 per cent of the chain's sales in the period.

Read a brief description of the operational status at 16 March below.

Wellbeing of the workforce

Europris has shut one of the 264 stores in the chain after an employee tested

positive for the virus. This person's symptoms were mild. In line with

applicable routines, the store was closed immediately and an external cleaning

specialist will disinfect and wash it down before it reopens. Europris has a

good dialogue with relevant government agencies, and the employees are being

well looked after.

Employees working in warehousing, distribution and stores are doing all they can

to ensure that customer receive what they need.

The cleaning frequency has been increased in all 264 stores, and strict routines

have been introduced for cleaning all contact surfaces, such as trollies and

baskets as well as touch screens.

Europris complies with the guidelines issued at any given time by the Norwegian

Institute of Public Health and has established good routines for informing

employees, customers and other partners.

Sales and warehousing

Europris has experienced an abnormal rise in sales as a result of increased

customer traffic and hoarding of food and consumer necessities. The group has

plentiful stocks, and the availability of most commodities from suppliers is

good, but hoarding could result in some stores selling out of certain products

for brief periods.

Flow of goods

The Norwegian government has identified logistics and retail operation as

socially critical functions, and it is important to emphasise that hoarding is

unnecessary. Europris would urge its customers to follow government advice to

shop as normal.

In the time to come, Europris will devote great attention to maintaining a

normal flow of goods and, within the parameters set by the Institute of Public

Health, will go to the greatest possible lengths to maintain its operations as

far as possible at normal levels.

Shops and opening hours

Some stores have reduced their opening hours because they are located in

shopping centres which have introduced shorter opening. In all its other stores,

Europris will try to observe normal opening hours so that the flow of customers

can be spread over a longer period of the day.

Sourcing

Europris has maintained a good and close dialogue with its suppliers to

safeguard the incoming flow of goods, and has so far only registered minor

delays with certain commodity deliveries.

Suppliers in Asia are being followed up via the purchasing office in Shanghai,

which has 25 local employees. This office reports that production in China is in

the process of returning to normal, and that both land transport and ports are

virtually in regular operation.

Financial status

Europris has a solid financial status and implemented a refinancing in January

2020 where long-term loans and revolving credits were secured for three years

with options for two additional years.

At 29 February 2020, cash in hand and available credits amounted in total to NOK

978 million.

For questions or further information, please contact:

Pål Wibe,            CEO        +47 99 11 98 91,

paal.wibe@europris.no

Espen Eldal,       CFO        +47 48 29 24 24,

espen.eldal@europris.no

About Europris:

Europris is Norway's largest discount variety retailer by sales. The company

offers its customers a broad range of quality own brands and brand-name

merchandise. Its merchandise is sold through the Europris chain, which consists

of a network of 264 stores throughout Norway. Of these, 231 are directly owned

by the company and 33 operate as franchise stores. The company's headquarters

are at Fredrikstad, Norway.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5

-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.