The world’s leading 250 retailers generated total retail revenues of US$4.41 trillion in FY 2016, representing growth of 4.1% year-on-year, with a net profit margin of 3.2%.
This is according to Deloitte’s Global Powers of Retailing 2018 report, based on publicly available data for the fiscal year ending June 2017.
Return on assets amounted to 3.3%, with retail revenue CAGR of 4.8% in the period 2011-2016. Retail revenue increased for 181 out of the top 250 companies.
The world’s top ten retailers accounted for 30.7%, or $1.35 trillion, of the top 250’s retail revenue in FY2016, marking a slight increase from 30.4% the previous year.
The five largest retailers maintained their positions, but a combination of organic growth, acquisitions, and exchange rate volatility shuffled the rest of the top 10.
Top Retailers
Walmart continued its long-held dominance as the world’s largest retailer. It saw revenue grow 0.8% to $485.8 billion, due to same-store sales growth for both Walmart and Sam’s Club, and an acceleration of e-commerce.
Reported sales at warehouse club operator Costco grew 2.2% to $118.7 billion, while the inclusion of newly-acquired Roundy’s helped supermarket giant Kroger to prop up retail revenues by 5%, reaching $115.3 billion.
Germany’s Schwarz Group, which operates Lidl and Kaufland, remained in fourth place with $99.2 billion (+5.3%), followed by global drugstore company Walgreens Boots Alliance with $97.05 billion (+8.3%).
Thanks to 19.4% annual growth, online retailer Amazon climbed four places in the ranking to sixth position, with sales of $94.66 billion. Despite seeing 6.9% revenue growth, Home Depot dropped to seventh with $94.59 billion, followed by Aldi with $84.92 billion (+4.8%).
After three years of sales growth, France’s Carrefour dropped two places in the ranking, as revenue fell 0.4% to $84.13 billion. Moving up two places and rounding off the top 10 was drugstore chain CVS, thanks to a 12.6% revenue increase to $81.10 billion.
UK grocery giant Tesco slipped out of the top 10 after it sold its Kipa retail business in Turkey and other non-strategic assets.
Other European grocery retailers in the top 50 include Ahold Delhaize (14), Metro (16), Auchan (18), Edeka (19), Rewe Group (22), Casino (24), E.Leclerc (25), Sainsbury's (31), Intermarche (33), Migros (39), Coop Switzerland (43), Mercadona (47) and Systeme U (50)
Retail Trends
Two-thirds of the top 250 retailers operate outside their home country. On average, they had retail operations in ten countries and derived 22.5% of their composite retail revenue from foreign operations.
FMCG retailers are by far the largest companies, with average retail revenues of nearly $21.7 billion, and collectively accounting for two-thirds of top 250's revenue.
Struggling economies, Brexit, and weak performances by some big retailers in recent years caused Europe’s share of Top 250 revenues to drop from 39.4% to 33.8% in the past ten years. The number of Europe-based retailers fell from 85 in FY2015 to 82 in FY2016.
Retailers from China, Japan and the Asia Pacific region are gaining ground, along with some players from emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East.
North America is still the leading region, accounting for 47.8% of overall revenue.
© 2018 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.
