Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona is investing €225 million in the construction of a new logistics centre to support its expansion plan in Portugal.
Located on a 440,000 square metre plot acquired by the company, the Almeirim facility, north of Lisbon, will have a total construction area of around 120,000 square metres and include a cold storage unit, a dry good unit, as well as buildings for general services and offices.
There will also be a focus on sustainability, with around 15,000 solar panels set to be installed, covering 25% of the energy needs, estimated at 9 GWh per year.
Scheduled to open in 2024, the facility will be Mercadona’s largest warehouse in the Iberian Peninsula, and marks its biggest investment in Portugal so far.
Read More: Mercadona Plans Ten New Stores In Portugal
Portugal Store Portfolio
Since arriving in Portugal in July 2019, Mercadona has opened 39 stores in the districts of Porto, Braga, Aveiro, Viana do Castelo, Setúbal, Santarém, Viseu, Leiria and Lisbon.
The company invested €84.5 million in the 100,000 square metre Póvoa de Varzim logistics centre, its first in the country supporting the expansion of the store network in the North.
This year, Mercadona plans to open ten more supermarkets in Portugal, namely in the districts of Lisbon, Porto and Braga, bringing the store total to 49.
Solar Installation
For 2023, Mercadona has earmarked €60 million to install solar panels on the roofs of its stores, a significant increase from last year’s €14 million.
Each store equipped with this installation will save around 20% of its annual energy consumption, and reduce the tonnes of CO2 emitted per supermarket by around 30%, the retailer said.
Currently, the supermarket chain uses solar as a renewable energy source in 114 stores, nine logistics blocks, three online sales warehouses, and at its new company offices in Valencia.
© 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.
