Robotisation earns Picnic first gross profit

Thanks to increased robotisation in its distribution centres, Dutch online supermarket Picnic has achieved gross profits for the first time. Co-founder Michiel Muller speaks of “a milestone”, but warns for exaggerated optimism.

Towards 100 % robotisation

For the first time since it was founded in 2015, Dutch online-only supermarket Picnic is profitable in its home market. “This is an important milestone for us“, CEO Michiel Muller told Distrifood. To be clear: the positive figure is not net profit, but EBITDA (gross profit before the deduction of interests, taxes, depreciation and amortisation).

The positive results are due to the company’s investments in robotisation: this makes order processing twice as efficient. So far, almost a third of Picnic’s volume has been robotised, but that should become 100 % in ten years’ time. However, the CEO warns that this does not mean that gross profits will also increase threefold. Net profits are also not in the cards for now, as the company continues to invest heavily in expansion.

Strong underlying trend

Muller does think that Picnic is in an ideal position to benefit from the growing market share of e-commerce in food: it will rise from 8 to 15 % by 2030 in the Netherlands and Germany. “The underlying trend of online grocery shopping is very strong; we have no merit in that. But if you already have something up and running now, you will soon have a very good position. That is obviously what we are aiming for.”

The CEO does not expect new competitors immediately, because the necessary investments are so high. In most countries, it is a race between two or three players, with Albert Heijn and Jumbo in the Netherlands, Rewe in Germany, or E.Leclerc in France.