Supermarket group Spar International continues to expand: for the third year in a row, turnover has grown by more than 5 % as Dutch and Austrian sales soar.
335 new outlets
The group’s total turnover last year was 35.8 billion euros, a 5.4 % increase compared to the year before. With 22.1 billion euros, Western Europe is still the group’s most important market. On average, turnover in this region increased by 4.1 %, but Belgium (+ 5.1 %) and the Netherlands (a whopping + 15.8 %) achieved even better. The chain is also working on a major transformation of the store network in the latter country, hoping to shed its old(-fashioned) image. Spar has been the fastest growing supermarket for years in Austria, where the company now generates a turnover of 6.88 billion euros and is investing heavily in new buildings.
Central and Eastern Europe are the group’s biggest growth regions: the company’s revenue increased by 15.8 % in the ten countries it counts in this region, which amounts to a total turnover of 5.8 billion euros.
“Our continuous compound annual growth of 5.2% over the last three years creates a strong platform to build from for the future and indicates that our ‘Better Together’ strategy, launched in 2016, continues to deliver for the organisation, our partners and our customers,” CEO Tobias Wasmuht stated in a press release. Last year, 335 new Spar sales points were added: the concern now has 13,112 outlets in 48 countries across four continents.
