Preliminary data from large listed international retailers indicate sales in 2022 up 7.8% but with a 6.2% drop in industrial margins. For the Italian large-scale retail trade (GDO), on the other hand, sales growth of 6.7% is expected in 2022 with the Ebit margin down to 1.4% from 2.4% in 2021. It is photography returned to the new edition of the Observatory on the sector in Italy and internationally drawn up by the Mediobanca Research Office which portrays a predominantly food sector that aggregates the economic and financial data of 130 national companies and 31 major international players for the period 2017-2021.
Demand, down 6% in January 2023
Large-scale distribution is a good observatory of what has been seen on the markets in the last two years. Inflation threatens the stability of demand, down by 6% in January 2023, eroding consumers’ purchasing power despite the forecast for a further increase in sales of 2.8% for 2023. The search for greater savings opportunities by consumers drives, in particular, private label products (MDF) which in 2022 will reach sales of 12.8 billion (+9.4% on 2021) and the discount channel projected over 22% of the market (17.4% in 2017).
Great champions…
In Italy Eurospin and Esselunga are the queens of cumulative profits between 2017 and 2021: 1,286 million, alongside Esselunga (1,195 million). A short distance away are VéGé at 1,078 million and Selex (1,056 million). Among others, Carrefour has accumulated losses of 766 million, Coop for 410 million and Penny Market for 43 million. Eurospin is also on the international podium as second for ROI (return on investment) in 2021. In first place US Target. On the third step WalMart. Returning to Italy, Coop Alleanza 3.0 is the largest Italian cooperative with sales in 2021 of 4,301 million, followed by PAC 2000 A (Conad) at 3,921 million and Conad Nord Ovest at 2,671 million, preceding Unicoop Firenze at 2,349 million. The shareholder loan of the Coop system marks a further decrease from 9.1 billion in 2017 to 8 billion in 2021. In the last 5 years, Coops have achieved net financial income of 826 million and suffered financial write-downs of 850 million.
..and growing little ones
There are twenty-five companies in Organized Distribution with turnover exceeding 500 million, from the Unicomm group with 2,413 million to Migross with 509 million. The Arena group has the best return on invested capital (Roi) index in 2021, equal to 23.4%, followed by thirteen other groups with double-digit indices. The largest increase in turnover in 2021 was achieved by Abbi Holding (+34.1%), which outdistances the Tosano Cerea Supermarkets, up by 14.9%, Mega Holding (Megamark), by 12.2%, and Retail Evolution Holding (Iperal) by 11.2%. In aggregate, the twenty-five operators have a turnover of 26.7 billion, they grew by 4.1% in 2021 and score an average Roi of 7.6%.
Online shopping
The growth of the online channel continues (+10.5% on 2021) but still stands at around 3% of total turnover. The concentration of the Italian market is stable: the market share of the top five retailers is equal to 57.1%, remaining above that of Spain (49.8%), but far from the Netherlands (80.1%) France (78.4%), Great Britain (75.4%) and Germany (75%).
