Discount Retail Chain NETTO, owned by the German EDEKA Group, generated revenues of around 17.1 billion euros (plus 1.3 billion euros, +8.2%) in 2023. EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) amounted to 355 million euros (2.1%) and showing an increase of about 2 percent. NETTO was also able to increase the number of stores and is well positioned with its current 4,349 stores (up 45 compared to the previous year including their beverage stores) and is the discounter with the largest store network in Germany. The online sales rose by more than 30% to 191 million euros. Its market share was also slightly increased to a total of 8.1%. The number of customers rose by 2% to 26 million, which is certainly also due to the new openings.
NETTO is working on cost efficiency
NETTO has certainly the large number of SKUs in its assortment of all discounters, with around 5,000 products per store. Neverheless in terms of space productivity, NETTO is still lagging behind its competitors Lidl and Aldi. Here, NETTO is in the process of improving this economic key figure with new and larger locations. Work is also further done on the warehouse infrastructure in order to create optimizations. In the stores themselves, the rollout for the electronic price tags (ESL) was successfully completed last month, which in turn also brings cost savings. These are now centrally controlled and the prices can be adjusted by radio.
The modernization of the stores is also progressing well. Nevertheless, the focus in recent years has been on modernization. The current concept for the design of interior and exterior surfaces is called "Netto 21". The goal is a noticeable visual enhancement of the market with relatively little effort.
Both the layout of the NETTO stores and the promotional areas are now more attractive for customers. In addition, NETTO would like to invest more in smaller retail spaces in city centres in the future. A new target group of the discounter are also people who want to (have to) shop on foot or by bike.
5,000 stores set as medium-term target
Netto plans to expand further in the future in Germany only. In a few years, according to the managing director of the food discounter Ingo Elbs, there should already be 5,000 stores. For the Edeka Group, Netto is not only an important building block in the group because of its share of sales, but also a strong argument for better purchasing conditions in supplier discussions. Because at NETTO, new listing items or even order stops can be implemented faster than in the Edeka supermarkets.
Another goal is also the development and implementation more sustainable products and processes. This also includes the more sustainable orientation of its own private label brands. Here, together with the WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature), they have entered into a partnership to bring customers closer to ecologically conscious shopping. In addition, Netto wants to significantly expand its expertise in the organic range. Almost 400 own-brand private label products already meet the recognised ecological standards of the WWF and therefore also carry the WWF panda on their packaging. Together with the WWF, NETTO now wants to continue to work closely together for the next few years.
Read more: Edeka subsidiary Netto Marken-Discount with good results. - Supermarket Inside (supermarkt-inside.de)
