SPAR, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, has recorded retail sales of €32 billion during 2012, an increase of 2.8% on the previous year. The results were announced at the 58th annual SPAR Congress, which was held yesterday, 21 May, in Ireland. While the retailer broke through the €1 billion sales barrier in 2012 with its Chinese and Russian stores combined, Austria remains by far the largest market for SPAR, with retail sales of €5.560 billion during 2012. South Africa is the second largest SPAR country by turnover, with sales in 2012 hitting €4.563 billion, showing an increase of 10.6%. Italy followed with sales in 2012 of €3.611 billion, then the UK with sales of €3.149 billion. The remainder of the top twelve SPAR countries recorded sales in the region of €1 billion to €1.5 billion, including Norway (€1.574 billion, up by 9.0%), Hungary (€1.460 billion) and France (€983 million).
SPAR Austria's retail sales were up by 3.2% in 2012 to hit €5.560 billion, with three new hypermarkets opened in the region during the period. 100 stores were upgraded or extended in the region, and the retailer now operates 67 SPAR Express stores in Austria.
Later this year, the retailer will have operations in a total of 36 countries, when the first SPAR stores are opened in Qatar and Lebanon. The retailer currently has 12,322 stores in 34 countries.
SPAR Austria Appoints New Czech Republic Management Team
In other SPAR news, SPAR Austria has appointed a new executive team for its operations in the Czech Republic. Robert Spiegel, Karl Bumberger and Christoph Pöll will head up the retailer’s business, replacing Martin Ditmar and Dr Christian Koller. All three are already part of the SPAR team - Bumberger joins from SPAR International AG, Pöll from the supply chain department, with Spiegel joining from the retailer's Italian operations.
