Corona actually caused economic losses in most areas, but not at REWE. The group even broke a sales record.
Lockdowns, restrictions and closings in 2020 were particularly hard on the economy. While many companies have suffered enormous losses in some cases, the German REWE Group benefited from the Corona year. As reported in a broadcast, the group is even on the verge of becoming the second largest grocer in Europe. According to its own information, the cooperative trading and tourism company managed to break the 75 billion euro mark for the first time in the past financial year.
REWE CEO Lionel Souque told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Tuesday edition) happily:
“This will make us the second largest grocery retailer in Europe, behind the Schwarz Group. In Europe, we should have overtaken Carrefour and Aldi”
The Schwarz Group, which operates more than 12,000 branches worldwide with its Lidl and Kaufland divisions, recently achieved sales of more than 110 billion euros. In Austria, Billa, Merkur, Bipa, Penny and ADEG belong to REWE.
As is also reported, twelve billion euros of REWE's sales growth was due to the takeover of Lekkerland. “In terms of earnings, too, we will compensate for the losses in other areas such as tourism,” said Souque, referring to the loss in sales at the subsidiary DER Touristik.
The competitors FTI and TUI receive state aid, which the REWE boss sees critically. He says: “We will not allow the loan to be waived in the end. Many agreements are not transparent, which is why we also go to the EU Commission.” DER Touristik, for example, has not had to apply for any government loans and is not planning to.
At the end of January it became known that Merkur would enter the race as an extension of the “Billa” family. The former “Merkur” branches will open to customers as “Billa Plus” stores from April – “Heute” reported. In the summer of 2020, REWE had already combined Billa and Merkur in the background in one organization, Billa Merkur Austria (BMÖ), and up to 250 jobs were cut. “We want to get away from the double strategy,” Rewe boss Marcel Haraszti was quoted in the “Kurier” at the time.
More on this in : Merkur becomes Billa Plus – That is changing >>
