Tomorrow is a special day for Dutch discounter Action, as it will open its 1,000th store in Gorinchem (in the Netherlands). The number of Action stores has almost doubled in the last two years.
10 billion euro
The new store opening shows the enormous expansion Action has gone through in the past few years: at the end of 2015, it surpassed 600 stores and only last year, it opened its 750th store. Only a year later, it added another 250 stores, with many of those in France.
Investment firm 3i, which owns Action, is not planning to halt the expansion: the chain will target a 3.5 billion euro turnover for this year, up from the 2.7 billion euro turnover from last year. The goal is to triple that and to surpass the 10 billion euro turnover soon.
The reason why Action is able to rapidly expand, is because its store formula barely changes in every country. This enables it to open stores quickly, which are profitable soon and usually earn back the investment within a year. In the near future, it will most likely expand into Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Czechia, Italy, Poland or Denmark.