French retailer Les Mousquetaires, best known for supermarket chain Intermarché, is looking to the future with confidence after a strong performance in 2021. In Belgium too, turnover and market share improved significantly.
Rising market share
Intermarché saw its Belgian sales grow by 6.4 % to 780 million euros in 2021, and this in a market that shrank by 4.3 %. The retailer’s market share increased by 18 basis points and now stands at 2.83 % nationally, while the Musketeers are only active in the French-speaking South
The retailer attributes these strong figures to its investments in lower prices, while also enjoying more visibility thanks to the cycling team Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert. One in in two French-speaking Belgians is now a customer at an Intermarché supermarket, compared to 40 % in 2015.
The future looks promising: half of the (currently) 78 shops will be enlarged over the next three years. Moreover, Intermarché just took a big step with the acquisition of the 87 supermarkets of Carrefour franchise partner Groupe Mestdagh from 1 January 2023 – a deal that still needs to be evaluated by the competition authorities.
Stronger foundations
Groupement Les Mousquetaires, the chain’s holding group, is also doing very well on a European level: its various retail chains – including Intermarché, Netto, Bricomarché and Bricorama – achieved sales of 35.3 billion euros in 2021, a growth of 1.8 %. Including the sale of fuels, turnover grew by 7.2 % to 45.3 billion euros.
On its French home market, food retailers Intermarché and Netto generated a combined sales of 27.3 billion euros, enlarging their market share by three basis points to 16 %. DIY chains Bricomarché, Bricorama and Brico Cash grew by 7.4 % and now account for 3.4 billion in sales. In Poland, food and DIY grew by 11.3 %, in Portugal by 1.9 %.
With these results, the group has strengthened its foundations, chairman Didier Duhapand says. The Musketeers will now further invest in a necessary transformation of their business model, with consumer purchasing power, digital transformation and e-commerce among the key issues.
The Groupement Les Mousquetaires now has 3949 retail outlets in Europe, operated by 3096 independent entrepreneurs. In addition, the group also has industrial activities in the food sector.
