With Migros Ticaret named Europe's Strongest Retail Grocery Brand, ESM caught up with chief executive Özgür Tort, to discover what makes the Turkish retailer stand out. This article first appeared in ESM's European Grocery Report.
Having posted eight consecutive periods of market share growth, Özgür Tort, chief executive of Migros Ticaret, is understandably confident about the retailer’s prospects – so much so, that he anticipates a doubling of the Istanbul-based business’s value over the next five years.
“Our aim is to make next-generation services in retail and beyond accessible to everyone,” Tort tells ESM, on the back of the news that Migros Ticaret has been named Europe’s strongest supermarket operator in the Top 50 Strongest European Grocery Retailers rankings, developed in association with Brand Finance.
“We draw strength from our past and enhance our excellence through invention and change,” he says. “This culture of change is engraved in our DNA.
“Through this culture, we expand our retail-verse with next-generation services to reform, repair, and regenerate our ecosystem. This motivation guides us as we work hard to shape the future of retail and provide a unique shopping experience.”
Embracing The New
Migros Ticaret increased its net sales by 29% in 2023 in a Turkish market beset by high inflation. The group marked its 70th birthday this year, and Tort believes that the fundamentals that have long underpinned its performance are helping its transition into the new omnichannel world.
“Grocery is at the heart of our daily lives,” he says. “With this belief in mind, we always embrace change, innovation, and new technologies, adapting them into the roots of our main business model. This way, we pave the way for a better future.”
The retailer has set ambitious goals, focusing on expanding its omni-channel and multi-format retail operations. With over one-third of its stores doubling as online hubs, the company has successfully integrated online services, which now account for almost one-fifth of its sales, excluding tobacco and alcohol. By 2026, Migros Ticaret plans to operate more than 100 distribution and packaging centres across Türkiye.
“This will require a significant shift and logistics strength,” says Tort.
Increasingly, Migros Ticaret’s approach is also extending beyond traditional retail, incorporating a diverse range of services such as EV charging stations, last-mile delivery, and fintech solutions through its digital banking platform, MoneyPay – a bundle of services that the retailer describes as its ‘beyond trade’ strategy.
“As we continuously grow through our multi-format, omni-channel, and integrated business model, we spread growth in our sector and our country,” says Tort, noting that the retailer boasts 100% penetration among Turkish households.
“The 23,500 producers, suppliers, and business partners, as well as the millions of customers in our ecosystem, are the motivation behind our service excellence.”
Loyalty And Reputation
Within the Top 50 Strongest European Grocery Retailers report, Migros Ticaret scored particularly highly in terms of both loyalty (9.0) and reputation (9.8), which Tort attributes to the group’s robust digital infrastructure. The company has incorporated innovations like blockchain, product traceability, and AI-driven stock control into its operating systems to enhance transparency and efficiency.
“We optimise our operations through the use of robotic process automation from our stores to distribution centres,” he says. “We merge the conventional steps of grocery retail with enhancements created by artificial intelligence. We use AI for stock control in fresh products, so that we always have the best options ready for our customers. This infrastructure is the reason behind our fast, trustworthy, and accessible services, which reflect loyalty and a good reputation among our customers.”
Elsewhere, the company’s 27-year-old loyalty programme, Money, plays a pivotal role in maintaining this relationship, providing valuable data that informs both online and offline strategies.
“This uniquely close relationship with our customers has always been what gives Migros Ticaret a special place in their hearts,” Tort adds.
Value Offering
Operating in Türkiye’s high-inflation environment presents significant challenges, but Migros Ticaret has adopted strategies to mitigate these effects. According to Tort, “We serve our customers with 50,000 varieties of products.” This includes an annual volume of 500,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables and two meat processing plants with a 90,000-tonne capacity.
To enhance purchasing power, it focuses on its private label products, which Tort describes as “the best offer in the market for everyday purchased basic commodity lines.”
He adds that the retailer is dedicated to offering its shoppers discounts and promotions they can’t find elsewhere, “We have created more than 16,000 promotions over the last two years. At the same time, we have returned 10% of the total annual spending of our customers back to them.”
The company also supports the local economy by working directly with small producers and agricultural cooperatives across Türkiye.
“Supporting local brands and production creates a positive two-fold impact: our farmers get a larger share of the national income, and consumers access affordable, healthy food,” says Tort.
Dedication To Sustainability
Sustainability is another cornerstone of Migros Ticaret’s strategy. The company has implemented measures to prevent food waste, improve logistics, and optimise stock control. It also supports small producers by purchasing entire harvests, ensuring that high-quality produce reaches stores while imperfect items are repurposed. Unsold food in its stores is donated to food banks.
Its longer-term sustainability strategy is encapsulated in its 2050 Carbon Net Zero target, through which it will “focus on investing in renewable energy and secondary loop refrigeration technologies,” says Tort. “With these solutions, we are able to achieve cost savings through efficiency, which is reflected in our prices as well.”
Looking ahead, Migros Ticaret aims to continue evolving by embracing change and innovation. The company’s culture of continuous improvement drives its efforts to expand its retail offerings and enhance the shopping experience, both today, and well into the next 70 years.
