SPAR has reported sales of €37.1 billion for the year ending 31 December 2019, representing a 4.35% increase in revenue.
At the end of the year there were 13.320 SPAR branded stores operating across 48 markets worldwide in four continents, an increase of 208 stores over the previous year.
Expansion has seen over 1.200 new stores added to the SPAR global network in the last four years.
The brand was launched in two new markets in 2019, Kosovo and Armenia.
SPAR Western Europe
In the 16 Western European markets where SPAR has a presence, sales grew by 3.57% to €22.9 billion, equating to 62% of SPAR’s global turnover.
Highlights included the performance of SPAR Austria which reported revenue of €7.2 billion, making it market growth leader for the tenth year in a row.
SPAR Netherlands achieved an unprecedented growth of 22.8% prompted by the success of its multi-format expansion strategy and SPAR Spain recorded growth of 8.8%.
SPAR CEE
Central and Eastern Europe recorded the most significant increase in sales of 6.83% across 11 SPAR countries to a historic high of €6.2 billion, with SPAR Hungary the stand out performer, reporting sales of €2.09 billion – an increase of over 10% on the previous year.
SPAR Russia continued its growth, with sales of €2.14 billion – growth of 7.6% year-on-year.
SPAR’s newer territories in the region experienced the most significant growth including SPAR Georgia (+79%), SPAR Albania (+19%), SPAR Ukraine (+141%) and SPAR Belarus (+300%).
SPAR Africa & the Middle East
Africa & the Middle East, where the brand has a presence across 14 countries, SPAR maintained its growth trajectory with sales of €6.06 billion – a 5.26% increase on 2018.
SPAR South Africa posted a 7% year-on-year growth, with sales of €5.09 billion. More than 60% of total revenue in 2019 came from the larger format SUPERSPAR stores.
Other notable performers were SPAR Mozambique (+34%), SPAR Nigeria (+10%) and SPAR Botswana (+12%).
In the Middle East, SPAR Saudi Arabia had a stand-out year recording growth of 57% year-on-year driven by increased footfall in existing stores, as well as the launch of smaller format SPAR and SPAR Express stores.
SPAR United Arab Emirates achieved a key milestone with the expansion of the SPAR brand to Dubai.
SPAR Asia Pacific
SPAR consolidated its position across many of the markets it operates with year-on-year growth of 3.04% and retail sales of €1.94 billion.
Together, the seven regional SPAR entities in China combined to produce revenue of €1.54 billion, an increase of 2.16%.
SPAR in China grew its presence with expansion into the new northern region of Zhangjiakou, and the opening of 30 new hypermarkets and supermarkets.
SPAR India expanded the brand into a number of regional and provincial cities, particularly in southern India, and recorded sales increase of 22%.
SPAR Thailand continued its rapid expansion to also record growth of 22% in 2019.
