Leading Supermarket Brands across the Globe

Over the last half a decade, the supermarket sector has experienced consistency in growth owing to favouring demographics, urbanisation, consumerism, online shopping, and other boosting factors. Although the same could not be said about the world economy since 2020, it has not dampened the enthusiasm of the big brands and new players are also entering the market at the local and regional levels. This also means that competition at all levels is only going to intensify. It will become increasingly difficult for big brands to penetrate semi-urban and rural areas without franchising or collaborations with local businesses. The SME enterprises, on the other hand, cannot afford to keep loose ends.

But has history not always been like this? First, there is change. Then there are more changes. And the saga of adjustments continues. Looking back at history and the success stories becomes important to derive insights and assess how some businesses stood the test of time and solidified their positions at the zenith with superior supermarket business plans and models . In this blog, we will look into some of the most successful supermarket brands in the world with an emphasis on what they did right.

Leading Supermarket Brands Globally

Highlighted below are six leading supermarket brands in the global picture. Mentioned in brackets alongside the brand names is something we found cool about them.

SPAR (Largest by Number of Stores)

Established in 1932 by Adriaan van Well, what we know today as SPAR is a Netherlands-based supermarket chain. After 15 years of coming into existence, the brand established its first international store in Belgium. In the next few decades, SPAR extended its store presence in many countries covering Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The company is headquartered in Amsterdam. SPAR is the world's largest supermarket chain going by its global store presence: with more than 13,500 stores in 48 countries and employing more than 350,000 employees. SPAR’s turnover is about €41.2 billion.

Walmart (Largest by Revenue)

Walmart is a multinational retail chain (one of its retail divisions is Walmart Supercenters). Founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, the first Walmart store (retail division - Discount Stores) was established in Arkansas in the United States. In 1988, the first Walmart Supercenter was started in Missouri.

In less than a decade after coming into existence, Walmart was present in 24 more locations. In 1969, the company was incorporated as Walmart Stores, Inc. Walmart continues to be controlled by the family of Sam Walmart with its largest shareholding. Today, Walmart is ranked as the largest company in the world based on revenue and is also one of the largest retailers in the world. The company’s revenue is anticipated at over USD 500 billion covering all of its service divisions.

Today, Walmart is a household name. The supermarket retailer offers a wide range of product categories encompassing groceries, household items, electronics and equipment, fashion, and entertainment. Low prices and value for money continue to remain Walmart’s USP. s

ALDI (Mostly Private-Label Brands)

ALDI supermarket is a global discount grocery chain based out of Germany. In 1946, the discount supermarket chain was founded by Karl and Theo Albrecht. ALDI was originally a family business of the Albrechts. In 1960, the company split into ALDI Nord and ALDI Süd - both collectively represent the ALDI brand today. Seven years later, ALDI Süd made its first international store presence when it acquired an Austrian grocery chain. ALDI Nord continued with its growth and expansion projects into the Netherlands.

Today, ALDI has a presence in almost two dozen countries around the world. The interesting thing about ALDI is that a majority of the products offered in their stores are their own brands. The collective revenue of the company stood at approximately USD 35 billion. The company has a store presence in more than 10,000 locations and has a 150,000+ workforce.

ALDI is a favourite among customers for its high-quality products at affordable prices. ALDI’s unique business model allows it to keep prices low while still maintaining quality. Some experts believe that ALDI achieves this by cutting fancy costs in areas such as advertising, store decor, and packaging. Operational efficiency and effectiveness is another stronghold of ALDI which is one of the best ways to optimise operational costs. Currently, ALDI is one of the fastest-growing retailing companies in the world.

Carrefour (First Hypermarket in France)

Carrefour is an international retail brand that runs a chain of hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience outlets. Founded in 1959 in France, the company is headquartered in Paris and was founded by Marcel Fournier. By 1999, Carrefour was the largest retailer in Europe.

Today, Carrefour is one of the largest retail chains in the world with store operations in 30 countries and 12,200+ store locations across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The company’s annual revenue is about USD 88 billion employing over 320,000 employees.

The brand Carrefour is known for its extensive range of merchandising, competitive prices, and commitment to customer delight. The company serves millions of customers each day. The company has launched several initiatives towards improving the environment highlighting its commitment to sustainability and global climate.

Lidl (Creative, Customer-Focused, Consistency)

Based out of Germany, Lidl is a chain of grocery stores. The first contemporary Lidl store was started in 1973. It was opened in Ludwigshafen which is located about twenty-five miles south of Frankfurt. In the course of 40 years, Lidl stores spread outside of Germany and expanded strongly throughout Europe. By the 2000s, Lidl emerged as a leading retailer in the UK. In 2017, Lidl entered the US retail market. Today, the company has operations in more than 31 countries and annual revenue breaching over USD 100 billion. Currently, Lidl operates around 12,000 stores with inventory distribution and logistics centres in 31 countries employing over 360,000 people. Lidl offers both food and non-food products.

There are some good reasons why people love to shop at Lidl stores. We will put consistency and standardisation at the top. These two are the outcome of the implementation of SOPs for supermarket operations . The brand is highly customer oriented and it is reflected in its UX efforts, quality assurances, frequency of communication with customers, and layout planning.

Tesco (From War to Food)

The brand Tesco, as it is known today, was founded by Jack Cohen in 1919. After returning from war, Jack started a market stall where he sold surplus groceries. It was in the East of London. His idea was to make food affordable for all. A very interesting historic detail is that on his first day as an entrepreneur, Jack made a profit of ￡1 on sales of ￡4 - that is 25%. Later, Jack joined hands with supplier T.E. Stockwell and they started offering their own tea brand naming it TESCO carrying cues from their names. That was in the year 1929. The store also offered dry fruits. In the 1950s, Tesco acquired as many as 500 stores and the first Tesco supermarket opened in 1958.

Today, the company has more than 4700 supermarket stores worldwide with annual revenue of about USD 66 billion and 354,000 employees.

While it is not possible to cover all the supermarket brands with a global reputation within the confines of a blog, we tried to cover as many as possible in this one. We may publish another blog covering some other brands. There are other solid names in the global supermarket industry like Ahold Delhaize, BIM (Birlesik Magazalar), CBA, Penny Market and more.

Future of supermarkets

Talking about the future of supermarkets, which is often a topic of discussion among the experts in the retail industry, the road ahead is going to be about technology to improve outreach, go omnichannel, and shorten the supermarket shopping journey. With the rising infiltration of eCommerce and the growing popularity of online shopping, the competition is bound to intensify for traditional brick-and-mortar supermarket stores.?

But as we said, supermarkets are not going anywhere anytime soon. New-age supermarket business models are evolving to meet the changing needs of customers and the overall business environment. Businesses are now incorporating features like self-checkout kiosks, digital signage, and mobile payments to enhance the shopping experience.?

A new trend among supermarkets is focusing on sustainability and intensified efforts to be recognised as eco-friendly brands. Very close to that development is the merchandising of fresh, organic, and healthy foods with special attention to securing locally-sourced produce.

To improve outreach, businesses are now exploring new formats such as smaller stores in urban areas and hybrid stores. For enhancing value to customers, the strategy of combining grocery shopping with other services like restaurants and entertainment is also attaining popularity.

Entrepreneurs and business owners who are contemplating making a foray into the supermarket business must assess what successful brands are doing differently and how the landscape of supermarket retailing is changing at the global level. But understanding the requirements of the concerned local market and local customers is a must because before anything else they are going to be a local supermarket.

FAQs

What are the largest supermarket brands in the world?

Some of the leading names are SPAR, Walmart, ALDI, Carrefour, Lidl, Tesco, Ahold Delhaize, BIM (Birlesik Magazalar), CBA, Penny Market and others.

Which is the leading supermarket in the world?

It will depend on the criteria of judgement. Going by revenue, Walmart is leading. If we go by the number of stores, it is SPAR. Similarly, the names will vary depending on the criteria of judgement.

What is one of the largest supermarket chains?

Going by the number of stores (approximate figures), SPAR is the largest supermarket chain.

What is bigger than a supermarket? Which is bigger - supermarket or hypermarket?

Conceptually, hypermarkets are bigger than supermarkets.

Get advise for E-commerce retail business :?https://www.yourretailcoach.ae/contact-us/