Lidl is upholding its ambitious expansion plan in Spain that has led the company to invest around € 1,000M since 2015, 330 of which correspond to 2017. This means over 9% of the company’s total invoicing during the past year. A large part of this investment was used to open 25 new points of sale all over the country last year. Today, the company has a network of over 550 stores.
Sales
The supermarket chain increased its net sales by 7.8% in 2017, reaching € 3,594M. This increase was also reflected in its market share, consolidating the company as the fifth operator in the country with 4.3%.
Prices
Last year, Lidl also maintained its leadership in prices, reducing the price of its shopping basket by 0.06%, whilst in the sector on average it increased by 2.1%, according to the Nielsen 360 report. The evolution in fresh produce was particularly outstanding. Accordingly, Lidl held unvarying prices for fresh produce (0.0%), whilst the rest of the large retailers increased the prices on average by 2.8%.
Employment
Last year, Lidl created 800 new jobs in Spain, and now it has over 13,000 employees. Over the past three years it has increased its staff by over 30%, consolidating over 3,000 new jobs.
Eroski opened 57 new franchises in 2017
With an investment of 13 million euros, the new stores have generated over 500 jobs. With these new stores, the sales by the franchise network grew by 7% last year.
In terms of geographical regions, Catalonia is the autonomous community where most stores have been opened, with 18 new establishments. This is followed by the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands with 7 and 5 respectively. The remaining franchised stores were opened in Andalusia (4), Galicia (4), Andorra (3), Extremadura (3), Madrid (2), Navarra (2), and Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla-León, Melilla, Cantabria, the Valencian Community and La Rioja, in each of which one new store was opened.
