Mercadona has announced an €8.5bn investment plan over the next six years to refurbish stores and improve logistics.
The programme, which will see 11 new stores in 2018 at a cost of €1.5bn, includes increased spending on the retailer’s digital transformation in order to increase efficiency and boost online sales.
“We are currently firmly committed towards investing to transform Mercadona, therefore more than €8.5bn are expected to be invested from equity capital between 2018 and 2023,” said chairman Juan Roig.
With a market share of almost one-quarter of Spain’s food retail market – a lead of 15 percentage points on its nearest rivals, Grupo Día and Carrefour – Mercadona is the country’s biggest supermarket chain.
In 2017 it posted annual profits of €322m on a sales increase of 6 per cent to €22.9bn. The retailer also created 5,000 new permanent jobs last year, bringing its total number of employees to around 84,000.
