Spar Austria Group has announced that it generated €15.72 billion in sales in its financial year 2019.
The group comprises Spar Austria, ASPIAG, Hervis, and SES Spar European Shopping Centres.
In Austria, the retailer reported a 4.7% growth in sales to €7.2 billion, making it the top performing retailer in the country for the tenth consecutive year.
This sales growth percentage is also more than double the Austrian food retail industry’s estimated average growth of 2.1%, Spar said in its statement.
'Sensational Growth'
CEO of Spar Austria Group, Dr Gerhard Drexel, added, "Thanks to our sensational growth in 2019, we were able to increase our market share last year by +0.8 percentage points to a historic high of 32.7% from 31.9% in 2018."
Austria Spar International AG (ASPIAG) reported a combined total turnover of €5.99 billion and a year-on-year sales growth of 6.0%.
The division operates 1,277 Spar and Eurospar Supermarkets and 107 Interspar Hypermarkets in northern Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia.
Growth And Expansion
In 2019, Spar Austria invested around €680 million in launching new stores and renovating existing outlets, as well as a new production plant and distribution centre.
This year, the retailer aims to invest an estimated €750 million in modernising and launching new stores. It also plans a further expansion of its central warehouse in Wels, Upper Austria.
In 2019, the Spar Austria Group created more than 2,200 new jobs, half of which were based in Austria.
It operates around 3,207 stores in the combined markets where it operates and employs over 85,000 people and 3,274 trainees.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
