Several supermarket groups are ramping up store openings in Spain, despite a slowdown in the overall market.
Retailers including Alcampo, Eroski and Consum aim to expand their reach and grab market share from market leaders Mercadona and Carrefour, according to Expansion.
New Store Openings
Last year, Alcampo opened the most new stores in Spain (233), of which 223 were acquired from Dia. This move allowed Alcampo to expand its footprint to new regions and add 170,000 square metres of retail space in Spain alone.
Basque retailer Eroski opened 74 stores in 2023 (mostly franchised outlets), and it plans to open 159 additional stores over the next three years, alongside a €100 million investment in digitalisation.
Cooperative retailer Consum opened 15 Consum branded stores and 52 Charter stores in 2023, bringing its total to 933 outlets (of which 485 are company owned). This momentum is set to be maintained in 2024, with 50 new openings planned for this year, split between Consum and Charter stores.
Discounter Aldi opened 46 new stores in 2023, its highest number of new store openings since 2019. Currently operating 435 stores in Spain, it has plans for nearly 50 new outlets in 2024.
Rival Lidl continued its expansion in Spain, opening around 20 stores last year and planning 40 more in 2024. Currently, the discounter operates 670 stores in the Spanish market.
Finally, Dia, once Spain's supermarket leader in terms of store count, is undergoing a significant downsizing. The company recently sold its Clarel perfume chain, as well as its entire Portuguese business.
These moves, coupled with store closures in Spain, resulted in a net loss of 302 stores in 2023, leaving the retailer with 2,318 locations.
Major Players
Market leader Mercadona (26.2% share) focused on expansion in Portugal last year (adding 49 stores), while opening 54 and closing 49 outlets in Spain.
Carrefour ended 2023 with a net gain of four stores, largely due to adding eight Supeco stores (now at 63 locations) as well as closing a hypermarket and some supermarkets. The French retailer also added four convenience stores, taking its network to 1,054 outlets.
Discounters On The Rise
Discounters such as Aldi and Lidl are poised to capture 23.1% of the food market share by 2028, a near two-percentage-point increase from 2023, according to figures from the Spanish Association of Large Consumer Goods Companies (AECOC) published by El Economista.
AECOC anticipates overall food sales in Spain to rise 3.3% over the next five years, exceeding the European average of 2.9%.
This growth will be fuelled by the surge of discount stores, along with convenience stores (estimated to reach 12.2% market share) and online grocery sales (projected to hit 4%).
At the same time, grocery stores are expected to see a decline in share, dropping from 23.6% to 21.2% of the market. Supermarkets will also see a slight decline, going from 28.5% to 28.9%, while hypermarkets face a steeper drop, from 11.7% to 11%.
