Spanish retailer Mercadona's suppliers have invested a total of €1.3 billion in infrastructure and innovation during the past four years.
These figures, published recently on a study by Institut Cerdà, points out that 90 out of the 125 manufacturers that supply Mercadona invested a total of €377.5 million in innovation (€85.5 million in new products and €292 million in new processes) and €882 million in infrastructure.
This investment has allowed the retailer to launch 580 new products between 2012 and 2015. Out of these, 42% were completely new to the market and the rest were comprised of improvements and reformulation of existing products.
Mercadona's investment is seven times greater than the industry average and the company has increased its R&D staff by 80% between 2012 to 2015.
The report also points out that 82% of the products launched by Mercadona were successful, meaning that they stayed for over a year on shelves.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Gabriela Guédez. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
