SPAR Austria consolidated its market leadership position in 2022, with a market share of 36,3%, and food retail sales exceeded €9 billion, equivalent to a sales growth of 4.7%. SPAR Austria Group, including operations in Austria and seven neighbouring countries across the three business areas of food retail, sports retail, and shopping centres, reported combined sales growth of 7.3% to €18.63 billion. The Group currently employs over 91,300 team members and operates 3,026 stores, of which 1,506 are located in Austria.

SPAR Austria Group includes SPAR Austria, ASPIAG, Hervis, and SES SPAR European Shopping Centres. With 50,600 team members based in Austria, SPAR remains the largest private employer in Austria and with its 2,500 trainees is the largest private training company in the country. In total, SPAR created nearly 1,400 new jobs in 2022 through its expansion.

Consolidating market leadership

The SPAR Austria Group operates 3,026 SPAR (in Italy: DESPAR), EUROSPAR and INTERSPAR stores in Austria, Northern Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Gross sales turnover in all of these countries grew to a total of €15.92 billion, an increase of 5.5%.

In Austria, SPAR consolidated its market leadership with a market share of 36.3%. SPAR operates a total of 1,506 SPAR stores in Austria, of which 1,067 are SPAR Supermarkets, 50 SPAR Gourmet stores, 79 SPAR Express forecourt stores, 232 EUROSPAR Supermarkets, 71 INTERSPAR Hypermarkets, and seven Maximarkt stores. A total of 679 of the SPAR stores are operated by independent retailers. In 2022, SPAR Austria opened around 40 new stores and modernised over 70 stores.

In May 2022, the new INTERSPAR Hypermarket in Oberwart, Burgenland, was opened and construction of two new INTERSPAR Hypermarkets in Leibnitz (Styria) and Gänserndorf (Burgenland) begun.

Growing presence in Vienna

SPAR Austria has operated SPAR Gourmet stores in Vienna for over 20 years, located in districts with a demand for delicatessen-oriented ranges. To augment this store network of 39, SPAR Austria has developed a flexible store concept enabling it to meet customers’ needs to an even greater extent. The first redesigned SPAR Gourmet store opened in October 2022 at Vienna’s Fleischmarkt in the 1st district.

 SPAR Own Brands

SPAR Austria focuses on continuous development of its assortment, especially in the area of fresh products and SPAR Own Brands. SPAR has developed over 7,500 own brand products, comprising food and non-food products. SPAR Own Brands contribute to more than 40% of the company’s food retail sales. The development of SPAR Own Brands also addresses changed consumer shopping behaviour due to the pandemic and rising inflation.

Organic products continue to be in strong demand and so do products for flexitarians, vegetarians or vegans. SPAR Austria invested nearly €3 million in own brand product development and corresponding facilities. The SPAR Veggie range was expanded to over 100 products and sales increased by 8.5%.

Sustainability initiatives

About 160 photovoltaic systems are currently installed on the roofs of SPAR, EUROSPAR, and INTERSPAR stores.

SPAR Austria cooperated with nine leading domestic electricity suppliers to expand the e-charging network in the last year. By 2025, over 200 e-charging locations will be added to the existing 120 locations at SPAR, EUROSPAR, and INTERSPAR stores.

SPAR Austria is continuing to pioneer innovative ways to reduce food waste. In 2022, SPAR developed an accurate solution with its IT partners using Artificial Intelligence. The solution enables more targeted order suggestions and demand forecasts for all stores. This reduced the amount of unsold food by 10% in that year. Moreover, products that are close to their best-before date are sold at a reduced price on a separate shelf, via the Too Good To Go app or donated to one of over 400 social organisations.

Source: SPAR Austria

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About SPAR Austria

The origins of SPAR in Austria date back to 1954, but the current SPAR AG was created in 1970 when the original founding families joined other regional wholesalers to form SPAR Austria AG – a 100% privately owned Austrian company.

With licences granted by SPAR International, ASPIAG (Austria SPAR International AG) has developed the brand in Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, and Northern Italy. With sales of €8.3 billion and impressive growth of 16%, SPAR Austria became the market leader in the Austrian grocery trade in 2020, after being a market growth leader for over a decade. It maintained this leadership position in 2021.