Mercadona surpasses the French giant Auchan, owner of Alcampo, and is one step away from entering the Top 10 of the large European supermarket chains. According to a ranking prepared by FRS Food Retail, the leadership of distribution in Europe is currently held by three German companies: Lidl, with a turnover of 167,000 million euros in the last financial year, followed by Aldi with 112,000 million and Rewe with 92,300 million.
The Dutch Ahold is fourth with 88.6 billion and Carrefour fifth with 83.3 billion euros. Mercadona increased its consolidated sales by 15% in 2023, up to 35,527 million euros, placing it ahead of Auchan with 32,300 million, only behind the British Sainsbury’s, which had a turnover of 39,400 million euros. The Spanish company obtained, specifically, 34,124 million with its business in Spain and another 1,403 million in Portugal, where at the end of the year it already had 49 establishments, of the total of 1,681 that it had at the end of the year.
For the first time, Mercadona has also exceeded 1,000 million in profit with 200 more purchases in each store daily. The Valencian company achieved a net profit, specifically of 1,009 million euros in 2023, which represents 40% more, thus managing to increase its result again compared to the 718 million euros in 2022. According to the president and main shareholder of the company, Juan Roig, during the last presentation of results last year, “Mercadona has done very well,” he assured, linking it to the price reduction of 1,000 products since April 2024. It is a strategy that has allowed it to increase its market share in Spain despite the strong price competition in Spanish distribution after the effects of inflation and the escalation of costs in recent years in the shopping basket.
Absolute leadership in Spain
In the Spanish case, according to data from Kantar Worldpannel, The company chaired by Juan Roig achieved a market share of 26.4% last Decemberalthough at specific times during the year it has even reached close to 27%, which represents the highest participation in its entire history. The second position is for Carrefour, with 9.4% and the third for Lidl with 6.6%. The German chain, in fact, is also in historic numbers, never seen before.
Mercadona is also one of the most profitable chains in all of Europe. In a sector where profit margins are between 1 and 3%, the Valencian company has achieved a profitability index of 2.84%, compared to the $2.31 it obtained in 2022. In the case of the margin over EBITDA also stood at 5.38%.
The Mercadona Management Committee has decided, on the other hand, to increase the salary of its entire staff by 8.5%, an increase that becomes effective starting with the January 2025 payroll and that reaches the more than 100,000 workers that the company has in Spain and Portugal. In a statement published last month, Mercadona states that the percentage increase is the sum of the corresponding Consumer Price Index (CPI) of each country and an additional extra decided by the company until this 8.5% is reached.
#Mercadona #surpasses #French #company #Auchan #among #twelve #largest #European #distribution #companies
