Dutch online supermarket Picnic remains firmly committed to Germany: the Dutch company wants to almost double its turnover this year. Opening 25 additional distribution centres in Germany alone should allow it to reach four to six million German households.
Towards nationwide coverage
Picnic has huge ambitions in Germany – no coincidence, as German supermarket group Edeka is a shareholder in the company. In 2021, the shareholders injected 180 million euros into Picnic’s German branch: they now want to see their investments rewarded.
Picnic is aiming for a sales figure of 400 million euros on the German market alone, Lebensmittel Zeitung concludes from the company’s annual financial report, compared to last year’s 275 million. The expansion is possible thanks to new distribution centres: at the end of last year, the delivery service had 34 such centres in Germany; by the end of 2023, it is expected to have 59. With the opening of new hubs in Hamburg and soon in Berlin, Picnic is operating outside the Ruhr area for the first time. The online supermarket will make deliveries from these local hubs using electric vans.
However, growth comes at a cost: as the company’s reach increases, so do the losses. Picnic still expects a net loss of 67 million euros in Germany this year, although its gross margin improved slightly (by one percentage point) to 36.8 % last year. Losses are also slowing down, with Picnic recording 63 million euros in losses last year and 57.8 million euros in 2021.
