Grocery retailers Lidl and Eurospin had the highest growth in the Italian sector in 2015, according to a study by financial institution Mediobanca.
It also surveyed the turnover of major Italian grocery retailers in the period between 2011 and 2015, which grew by 4.5% in that period, and by 1.9% in 2015 alone.
Fuelling the growth during those four years were discounters Lidl Italia (+43%) and Eurospin Italia (+42.9%), followed by Esselunga (+11.6%) and Iper-Unes (7%). Coop remained stable (+0.1%), while PAM Group lost ground (-4.9%).
French retailers have fallen back since 2011: Auchan-SMA by 19.6% and Carrefour Italia by 9.3%. While Auchan-SMA saw its turnover drop by 8.9% in 2015, Carrefour registered the first growth since 2012, with sales up by 6.1%.
In 2015, Lidl Italia (+9.6%) and Eurospin (+6.7%) confirmed their leadership in terms of growth, beating out Carrefour (+6.1%) and Esselunga (+4.7%). Coop members had total revenues of €10.9 billion, but Esselunga remained the leading individual player in terms of size, with sales of €7.2 billion, followed by Carrefour (€4.9 billion) and Eurospin (€4.4 billion), surpassing Auchan-SMA, which dropped to €4.15 billion.
Esselunga is the most efficient grocery retailer in 2015 with €16,000 sales per square metre, but its ROI (16%) is lower than that of Lidl Italia (23.7%) and Eurospin Italia (20.6%).
Since 2011 Eurospin has accumulated net profits of €635 million, nearly three times that of Lidl Italia (€206 million) but just over half of Esselunga (€1.1 billion). Both Carrefour (-€2.5 billion) and Auchan (-€559 million) are deep in the red.
The Coop system ended 2015 with an aggregate turnover of €10.9 billion, with an operative loss (-0.7% on sales). Six of its eleven members had an operating loss, with Coop Centro Italia achieving the best result.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
