Lidl Portugal contributed an estimated €2.1 billion towards the Portuguese economy in 2018, which corresponds to 1% of the country's GDP, according to a study conducted by consultancy firm KPMG.
Over the past five years, the supermarket chain has directly and indirectly contributed more than €9 billion to Portugal's economy, achieving an annual growth of 6% since 2014 and creating around 46,300 jobs.
In 2018, for every €1 spent by the company, €1.77 was generated in benefit for the Portuguese economy, and for each job generated by Lidl, an additional 5.8 new jobs were created in Portugal, according to the study.
Increased Investment
These figures reflect the growing investment that Lidl Portugal has made since 1995 and which has intensified in recent years.
With a network of 253 stores, the retailer sees support for national production as one of its priorities.
The sectors that have benefitted the most from Lidl Portugal’s activities are food products (39%), agricultural products, animal production and related services (12%) and real estate construction (10%). In addition, the supermarket chain has played an important role in exports of Portuguese products, the study found.
'Another Challenge'
Elsewhere, the financial manager of Lidl Portugal, Sérgio Ramos, said that the arrival of Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona in the second half of the year in Portugal represents "another challenge" for the company, but that “expectations are good”, according to a report in Lusa.
He stressed that the retail sector in Portugal "is very competitive", but that the company is already used to this, adding that the “arrival of a new competitor will not change or strategy”.
Ramos also revealed that the discounter's performance in the first six months of 2019 has been “according to plan” and “even better than last year”, and that expectations for the second half are “good”, despite the impending arrival of Mercadona from the beginning of July.
He admitted that Lidl Portugal may open new stores, but did not mention any figures, indicating that the strategy will involve more modernisation of existing stores.
© 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
