Lidl Austria has reported a 7% year-on-year growth in sales to €1.47 billion in its financial year 2020.
In this period, the retailer invested approximately €100 million in modernisations, new buildings and expansions.
It also implemented measures to add value for local suppliers by expanding its product range and has listed around 400 new products.
The new range, focusing on locally grown organic products, includes the brand ‘Ein gutes Stück Heimat’ (A good piece of home) – the retailer’s first completely climate-neutral discount brand.
Alessandro Wolf (pictured above), chairman of the management board, commented, “Last year was really challenging. Thanks to our great team, we not only mastered the special situation but also launched many projects that will give us the necessary momentum over the next few years.”
Local Products
More than half of all food sold in the Lidl stores across Austria comes from local suppliers, amounting to almost 400 million items per year and around €800 million in added value for domestic food suppliers.
Austrian food suppliers have generated more than €360 million with Lidl through exports to other Lidl national companies alone.
In this way, almost 4,000 tonnes of cheese and around 8 million bottles of wine found their way into Lidl shops throughout Europe last year.
Store Revamp
Lidl Austria is working on a renovation project for stores and has so far remodelled more than 80 outlets.
The company aims to revamp around 100 branches this year and convert all its stores to the new format by 2023.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
