Jumbo grows, but sees reasons for concern

Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo saw a 14 % turnover growth in the first six months of 2020, exceeding market growth of 8.5 %. Online sales exploded, but progress in Belgium was slower than expected and the La Place restaurants seem to be in a bit of a pickle.

Online boom

Jumbo’s first semester turnover rose to 5.1 billion euros, a 14.2 % growth of which 9.5 % was autonomous. The most striking result for the chain was online sales growth, which went up 50 %. This result puts Jumbo “well on its way to reach the ten billion euro turnover mark in 2021, the year in which the company celebrates its 100th anniversary”, CEO Frits van Eerd said.

Another part of the growth is the 25 stores the chain has opened or still plans to open this year, including the city centre locations Jumbo purchased from Hema and Marqt. This figure also includes Belgian stores, a market where existing stores are successful but new stores are hard to come by: Jumbo now hopes to have eight stores by the end of the year – not reaching the ten new stores the chain hoped to open before. The long-term plan, however, remains unchanged at at least a hundred Belgian stores.

Worse off is Jumbo’s restaurant chain La Place, whose sales more than halved from 82 million euros to just 33 million. La Place did not only suffer from the coronavirus crisis, but also from the closing of twelve Hudson Bay department stores earlier this year. 23 locations will close, while locations with more perspective will be switched to a new concept that aims to offer “good food fast”.