“With Colruyt Professionals, we attract 70% new customers”

With an opening Thursday morning in Hoboken, Colruyt Group has reached its goal of ten Colruyt Professionals self-service wholesale stores. However, growth in the B2B sector doesn’t have to stop there, says Jo Willemyns, director of Colruyt Lowest Prices: “We’re challenging ourselves.”

New customers

What began in 2020 as a pilot project in Schaarbeek quickly proved to be a winning formula: this year alone, Colruyt Professionals expanded with five new stores, doubling the network in just one year. Originally, the retailer intended for these self-service wholesale stores to relieve the “regular” Lowest Prices stores of professional customers. After all, these customers account for about 10% of Colruyt’s revenue. But the potential turns out to be greater: “We’re seeing a shift of about 30% of existing customers when a Colruyt Professionals opens in the region, but we’re also attracting 70% new customers. That’s more than we expected,” says Jo Willemyns, whom we spoke with at the new store on the Blue Gate site in Antwerp.