German retail group Rewe achieved a 57.8 billion euro turnover in 2017, which represents a 6.7 % increase. That was an above-average growth, mainly thanks to its own Rewe supermarkets.
Exceptional year for Rewe
2017 was an exceptional year for Rewe Group, CEO Lionel Souque said. “Our group has grown 3.7 billion euro, a record turnover growth.” The CEO is mainly pleased with the fact that the group also published considerable autonomous growth, aside from the acquisition of several Kaiser’s Tengelmann locations, the new Sky formula and a new Rewe Dortmund joint venture.
“Rewe managed the highest turnover growth in the supermarket industry, despite being in the highly competitive German food market”, Souque said. The company’s wholesale and supermarket activities generated a 4.4 % autonomous turnover increase.
Discount chain Penny also performed well, with a 2.5 % German turnover increase and a 5.4 % turnover increase abroad. The independent supermarket entrepreneurs also performed admirably, with a 8.5 % sales increase. Their numbers also increased 6 %.
2.4 billion euro in investments for 2018
The group’s turnover grew 7.1 % in the German market and foreign growth reached 5.7 %. Its DIY chains Baumarkt and B1 Discount Baumarkt had a local 2 % growth to 2.1 billion euro, which was once again above the market average (1.1 %) according to the company. B1 did slow things down, because it suffered a 12 million euro turnover drop.
Looking at its activities abroad, Rewe group posted growth in Middle and Eastern Europe: supermarket and convenience store turnover grew 4.9 % to 8.9 billion euro in Czechia, Russia, Croatia, Bulgari and Ukraine. That was excluding exchange rate fluctuations. Billa’s turnover spiked 14.5 % to 2.6 billion euro.
Rewe invested 1.9 billion euro into its activities in 2017 and its EBITDA reached 594 million euro. The company wants to increase its investments to 2.4 billion euro for this year, mainly to continue its expansion and modernization, but it will also invest in real estate, technology, logistics and employee training. Germany will receive 1.5 billion euro and the remaining 900 million euro will go towards its activities abroad.
