Retailer Albert Heijn opened 113 stores in the Netherlands and Belgium last year, consolidating its position as the Dutch market leader, new data from NielsenIQ has found.
The Ahold Delhaize owned retailer holds a market share of 37% in the Netherlands as of year-end, the data showed, operating 1,229 stores in total, boosted by the recent acquisition of stores from the DEEN chain.
“2022 was a year that had challenges, but one that I look back on with pride," commented Albert Heijn CEO Marit van Egmond. "On the one hand, we were given more freedom with the release of coronavirus measures, on the other hand we were confronted with significant inflation."
Closest rival Jumbo saw its market share dip slightly, NielsenIQ's data showed, to 21.5%, with the group operating six fewer stores as of the end of the year.
Turnover Growth Driven By Inflation
Overall, supermarkets in the Netherlands achieved a combined turnover of €46.3 billion in 2022, which is 3% higher than a year earlier, or €1.35 billion more.
The increase in turnover was driven by inflation, with prices 17.3% higher in December 2022 than in the corresponding month the previous year, NielsenIQ said.
Volume sales were actually down, year-on -year.
Amidst rising sales, more consumers are turning to private label, a trend that is a 'break with previous years', according to NielsenIQ.
Private-Label Performance
Private-label sales were up 1.8 percentage points to 43.8%, the data showed.
Elsewhere, online shopping appears to have ground to a standstill, with the e-commerce segment accounting for 5.2% of grocery sales, which is the same share as the previous year.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
