Low cost supermarket chain Eurospin recorded growth in sales of 48.7 per cent between 2010 and 2014 – the highest in Italy during the period – going from €2.77 billion to €4.12 billion.
This compares to average growth for the Italian food retail sector of 1.5 per cent in the same period.
According to research conducted by Mediobanca, Eurospin was also top for profitability, measured in return of equity and profit margin.
The company’s other strong points were fast warehouse turnover, rapid payment of suppliers, and low incidence of personnel costs.
Esselunga had the second highest growth with 10.7 per cent to €6.9 billion. Cooperative Coop saw moderate sales growth of 1.8 per cent to €11.2 billion.
The major French chains had a negative performance: Carrefour sales were down 19.1 per cent to €4.68 billion, while Auchan-SMA sales dropped 13.7 per cent to €4.55 billion.
Coop still has the biggest market share with 15 per cent, followed by Conad with 11.7 per cent, and Selex with the third biggest share of 9.4 per cent.
Auchan-SMA had the most sales points in 2014 (1,875), followed by Carrefour (1,158) and Eurospin Italia (1,003).
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
