REWE Group Austria

After the strong exceptional coronavirus year in food trading in 2020, REWE Group in Austria continued to grow sustainably in 2021 with BILLA, PENNY, BIPA, ADEG and REWE Austria Touristik. Total gross turnover (retail and tourism) rose by +1.54% to €9.21 billion (2020: €9.07 billion). “After the exceptional coronavirus year of 2020, we weren’t only able to continue growing, but even exceeded our targets,” say REWE International AG Executive Board members Marcel Haraszti and Christoph Matschke, expressing their satisfaction with business development. The grocery business (BILLA, PENNY, ADEG) achieved an increase in turnover of +1.25%, while the drugstore business (BIPA) grew by +2.99%. REWE Austria Touristik recorded an increase in turnover of +44.25% in 2020, following a slump in turnover caused by coronavirus. In 2021, REWE Group invested €224 million in Austria and employed 45,338 people. Of these, some 2,200 are apprentices, 200 more than in 2020.

"We want to become No. 1 among our customers. We have continued to pursue this goal with full commitment in 2021 and have consistently implemented the next and most important step – the merger of our two successful sales formats BILLA and MERKUR under the BILLA umbrella brand. With this milestone, we have become simpler and even more powerful for our customers. We have scored with the biggest price reduction in the company’s history and our regionality offensive in the product range. And this is being rewarded by our customers: we were able to exceed our targets," says Marcel Haraszti, looking back on a successful business year. BILLA (BILLA/BILLA PLUS) increased its turnover by +1.58% in 2021, employed 31,198 people and grew the number of stores by 17 to 1,270.

BIPA increases sales for the fourth time in a row

BIPA, on the other hand, once again, and for the fourth time in a row, recorded very pleasing sales growth in 2021 with an increase of 2.99%. “This proves we’re on the right course. The improvements and efforts we’ve made for our customers are bearing lasting fruit,” says Haraszti.

Tourism, too, was able to grow again in 2021 after the massive coronavirus-related drop in turnover in the 2020 financial year (-73% vs. 2019). Tourism recorded a 44.25% increase in turnover.

After an extremely successful 2020 driven by the effects of the pandemic, PENNY Austria suffered a high-level decline in turnover of -2.69% in 2021. In the massively competitive Austrian discount market (turnover share in the total market fell from 24.9 to 23.1% according to preliminary industry estimates), the company performed significantly better than the discount industry average.

3,000 employees currently wanted

In 2021, the Human Resources department was also under pressure. REWE International AG Executive Board member Christoph Matschke: "The coronavirus pandemic has greatly changed our labour market. That’s why we’ve also stepped up our recruiting efforts, in particular installing our own IT recruiting task force, given the prevailing war for talent on the IT labour market."

In 2021, the number of employees - adjusted for staff who were only working temporarily during the pandemic in 2020 - increased by 62 "and we would have liked to take on quite a few more," emphasises the REWE International AG Chairman. "At the moment, we can offer jobseekers 3,000 vacancies and more than 600 apprentices an attractive position immediately." A total of 800 new apprentices are to be taken on in the current business year.

In the 2021 business year, too, REWE Group steadily continued its course of expansion, modernisation and innovation in its international retail business. “This means that after the already strong exceptional coronavirus year of 2020, gross turnover in the international retail business increased once again by +1.98%, from €18 billion to €18.41 billion. This figure was adjusted for exchange rate effects and, due to the sale of BILLA Russia, for discontinued operations,” says REWE International AG CEO Christoph Matschke. “All three business units, which operate in nine EU countries, made their contribution to this positive development.” Full-range in Austria (BILLA, BIPA, ADEG) grew by 2.14% to €8.34 billion. PENNY International grew by +1.75% to €6.47 billion. Full-range in CEE (BILLA, IKI) achieved growth of +2.01% with turnover of €3.60 billion after €3.49 billion (figures adjusted for exchange rate effects and discontinued operations). In 2021, Retail International employed 89,223 people in 9 countries and invested €660 million.

Represented in Austria, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania, PENNY International presents itself as a country-specific discounter in each country. The share of national products in the range is more than 50% or even significantly higher in each country – more than 70% in the Czech Republic, for example. The successful own brands also work mainly with regional suppliers.

"After the strong pandemic-driven growth in the coronavirus year of 2020, there was another plus with PENNY International as a country discounter doing a lot right for its customers in the long term. This was mainly due to our high share of regional products and the top price-performance ratio," says REWE International AG Chairman Michael Jäger, expressing his satisfaction with the development of PENNY International over the past business year. The number of employees increased by 444 to 24,998, while the branch network was expanded by 48 stores to 1,636 locations.

The growth leader in 2021 was once again PENNY Romania with an increase in turnover of 11.79%, followed by PENNY Hungary with +4.45% and PENNY Czech Republic with +0.22% (all figures adjusted for exchange rate effects). PENNY in Italy is now also showing stable positive development after the turnaround. Romania is a key strategic growth market for PENNY International, where the number of stores will double to 600 by 2029.

Full-range in CEE (BILLA, IKI) pushes ahead consistently with realignment

Full-range in CEE (BILLA, IKI) successfully reached a milestone in its realignment in 2021 by leaving the Russian market and now focusing fully on its EU markets of Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic with BILLA, and Lithuania with IKI. “Now we want to grow sustainably in all our markets. To achieve this, we are focusing precisely on the wishes and needs of our customers in every store with regionalised product ranges and customer communication, and at the POS. We worked on this at full speed in 2021, creating the prerequisites, and in 2022 we’ll enter the implementation phase,” says REWE International AG Executive Board member Espen B. Larsen.

With +6.87%, IKI Lithuania 2021 achieved the strongest increase in turnover, followed by BILLA Bulgaria with +3.82% (all figures adjusted for exchange rate effects). In the past financial year, full-range stores in CEE employed 21,052 people, and the branch network comprised 775 locations (figures adjusted for the Russian business).

Investment offensive continues in 2022

In the 2022 financial year, investments will continue to be made in all nine Retail International markets to increase customer satisfaction, expansion and modernisation. An investment volume of almost €1 billion has been estimated for this.