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Jumbo Delivers Robust Performance Amid Global Headwinds and Expands Across Europe

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

September 25, 2025

Greek retail giant Jumbo has reported a net profit of €117.18 million for the first half of 2025, underscoring the resilience of its business model in a challenging global market. Despite facing persistent supply chain delays, escalating transport costs, inflationary pressures, and tariff disputes, the company continues to post an 8% sales increase compared to the same period last year.

Strong Financials and Strategic Growth

The group’s sales reached €497.28 million with a gross profit margin of 53.86%, a slight decline from 55.27% in the previous year due in part to an increased share of lower-margin wholesale transactions with franchise partners. Meanwhile, Jumbo’s EBITDA stood at €165.36 million, nearly matching the previous period’s performance. Excluding a one-time insurance compensation benefit received in 2024, EBITDA showed a notable growth of 7.05% over last year’s results, with margins maintained above 33%.

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Expansion and Market Diversification

Jumbo is strategically positioning itself for continued expansion. With the current operation of 89 stores across Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Romania, the company has mapped out an aggressive growth trajectory. Plans include the opening of two new hyperstores in Cyprus over the next five years, alongside targeted acquisitions and the development of new retail outlets in Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania. These expansion efforts are expected to bolster the group’s market presence and support sustaining its organic growth rate of 8% annually.

Embracing Digital Transformation and Operational Excellence

Identifying the importance of digital transformation, Jumbo is making systematic investments in enhancing its online store presence across all operating markets while simultaneously upgrading its cybersecurity, artificial intelligence tools, and ERP systems. These initiatives aim to improve customer experience, optimize decision-making processes, and drive operational efficiency. Additionally, a significant investment of over €60 million in two new distribution centers will further underpin the company’s logistical capabilities in the medium term.

Robust Balance Sheet and Shareholder Returns

The retail leader maintains a strong liquidity position, with cash and cash equivalents surpassing its loan and lease liabilities by €309.79 million as of June 30, 2025. This financial stability, supported by a successful share buyback programme, reflects Jumbo’s commitment to delivering dividends and value to its shareholder partners, even as it navigates a complex international environment.

As the Christmas trading period approaches, all eyes will be on Jumbo’s performance, which is expected to serve as a key indicator of whether the group can sustain its positive momentum in the coming months. With measured expansion and continued investments in both physical and digital capabilities, Jumbo sets a strong example of strategic resilience in today’s volatile retail landscape.

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Anthropic Launches Claude Fable 5 With New AI Safety Controls

New Model Sets The Bar For AI Safety And Efficiency

Anthropic has launched Claude Fable 5, the latest public version of its Mythos model, expanding access to a system designed for software engineering, knowledge work and computer vision tasks. The company said high-risk requests involving areas such as cybersecurity, biology, chemistry and AI model distillation will be redirected to Claude Opus 4.8, which has been configured with additional safeguards.

Strategic Rollout And Broader Accessibility

Mythos was initially made available to a limited group of partners in April as Anthropic evaluated potential cybersecurity risks associated with the model. Access was expanded last week to hundreds of organisations across 15 countries, primarily those operating critical infrastructure. Claude Fable 5 is now available through Anthropic’s Claude API and usage-based Enterprise plans. Early access has also been included in selected subscription tiers ahead of a broader pricing rollout scheduled for June 23.

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Advancing Safety And Industry Standards

Anthropic said the model underwent extensive safety testing before release, including bug bounty programmes and red-team exercises conducted by external organisations. According to the company, more than 1,000 hours of testing did not identify any universal jailbreak vulnerabilities.

A mandatory 30-day data retention policy will apply to all traffic processed by the model, including accounts that previously operated under zero-retention agreements. Anthropic said the measure is intended to improve monitoring and protection against emerging security threats.

Outstanding Performance And Competitive Pricing

Independent evaluations, including testing by analytics company Hex, reported strong performance in complex reasoning and analytical tasks. Companies, including Base44 and Genspark, highlighted improvements in tool use and interface design capabilities. Pricing has been set at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, compared with lower rates for previous models. Some enterprise customers, including Rakuten, said the model’s ability to verify aspects of its own output could help improve efficiency in tasks that require higher levels of accuracy.

Implications For The AI Market

The release comes as Anthropic prepares for a potential public market debut, and competition among leading AI developers continues to intensify. Alongside performance improvements, the company has placed significant emphasis on model safety, reflecting broader industry concerns around misuse, jailbreak attempts and the risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems.