Retailers Sonae and Jerónimo Martins ended 2022 as the biggest players in Portgual's grocery sector, although Lidl saw the highest growth, new data from Kantar has revealed.
According to the data, which was published by Economia Online, MC Sonae, which operates the Continente banner, saw its market share drop from 28.7% in Q4 2021 to 27.1% in Q4 2022.
Grupo Jerónimo Martins, owner of the Pingo Doce banner, rose from 21.6% to 21.8% in the same period.
Lidl Outperforms The Competition
However, the best performer was Lidl, improving its share from 11.8% to 13.5%, with the discounter attracting shoppers from MC Sonae, according to the data.
Kantar noted that Lidl has been gaining ground due to a strategy built primarily around store brands, but also 'a lot of investment' in fresh, organic and eco-friendly products.
Fourth-placed Intermarché saw the biggest drop in share, going from 8.6% to 7.6% of the market, while another French-owned retailer, Auchan Retail Portugal, also lost market share, from 5.2% to 4.5%.
Despite having ten times fewer stores in Portugal (39), Spain’s Mercadona overtook Minipreço, placing sixth with a 3.8% share (up from 2.2%), followed by German discounter Aldi with 2.7% (2.9%).
According to Kantar, Mercadona’s progress is due to the ‘different store dynamics', and a 'more complete price and assortment offer'.
For its part, Minipreço showed slight growth, from 2.1% to 2.2%, although the retailer is slow to update its offering and shopper experience, Kantar said.
Other players account for the remaining 16.8% of the Portuguese grocery retail market, down from 17.0% in Q4 2021.
As well as retail banners such as Coviran, SPAR and Aqui É Fresco, the proximity store segment is being dominated by the major players, through brands such as Meu Super (Sonae), Amanhecer (Jerónimo Martins) or MyAuchan.
Read More: Portugal's Jerónimo Martins Sees Inflation Boost Profits
Private-Label Sales
Private label accounted for 42.2% of total supermarket sales in Q4 2022, compared to 38.1% a year earlier.
Contributing to the growth was the increasing presence on the Portuguese market of retailers for whom private label is a major part of their offer, such as Lidl, Aldi and Mercadona.
The value share of the online channel at the end of 2022 stood at 2.5%, sslightly above the pre-pandemic level (2.2% in 2019), but below the 3.2% peak reached in 2021.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
