Record sales for Spar, which expands to South America

Spar International celebrates its 90th anniversary with a record turnover of more than forty billion euros worldwide. This year, the food retailer is expanding its activities to three new countries – and even a new continent.

Critical role for independent retail

In 2021, Spar retailers have achieved a global turnover increase of 3.3 % to 41.2 billion euros – the first time that the organisation passes the milestone of 40 billion euros in sales. In the two years since the Coronavirus outbreak, sales have grown by more than 10 % – largely helped by a tripling of online sales as Spar expanded its e-commerce activities to 35 countries.

In Europe, Spar achieved a turnover of more than 33 billion euro with 12,011 stores in 27 countries. There was strong growth in Poland (+ 20 %), Switzerland (+ 10.7 %) and Hungary (+ 7.2 %). The good figures illustrate the critical role independent retailers play all over the world, CEO Tobias Wasmuht said.

Launching in South America

At the end of 2021, there were 13,623 Spar stores in 48 countries worldwide. The retailer will soon be present in 51 countries after launching in Latvia (the 18th country in Europe), Kazakhstan and Paraguay as Spar’s very first venture into South America. The organisation has entered into a partnership with Los Jardines, a family-owned supermarket chain in the landlocked country.

Spar is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year: the organisation was founded in 1932 by Dutchman Adriaan van Well with the ambition of uniting independent retailers.