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Retail

Despar Italia Plans 50 New Store Openings In 2019

By Branislav Pekic
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Despar Italia Plans 50 New Store Openings In 2019

Despar Italia plans to open at least 50 new outlets this year and renovate 36 stores.

The retailer will invest €95 million in this expansion and modernisation project, it said.

Despar Italia ended 2018 with a 3.5% annual growth in turnover to €3.5 billion, gaining a market share of 3.7%.

Private-Label Sales

In 2018, the retailer reported private-label sales of €334.5 million, up 7.7% from the previous year.

A total of 289 million private-label products were sold in 2018 and 251 SKUs were launched.

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Sales in the category accounted for 19.2% of total sales. The retailer already offers more than 3,000 private-label SKUs across 13 different lines.

Exports

Despar Italia exported almost €10 million in branded products to Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Georgia, Russia, Albania, Malta, and Greece.

Last year, Despar Italia launched a project with the University of Parma to improve the quality of its products.

With the aim of aligning private-label products with healthier lifestyles, the retailer will reformulate ingredients for a large number of references.

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It will include reduction of saturated fats, sugars and salt, adjusting portion sizes, and increasing fibre content.

Outlook

By 2025, the retailer aims to increase its share of private-label sales to 25% of its total sales.

In the period between 2019-2021, the development of private-label products will focus on the health and well-being of consumers and environmental sustainability.

With total sales of more than 740,000 square metres, Despar Italia has 1,244 active stores in 13 regions and 63 provinces in the country.

© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.

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