Europe’s richest supermarket makes £104 billion

Most British shoppers won’t have heard of the Schwarz Group, the powerhouse behind German supermarket Kaufland but they will most certainly have heard of Kaufland’s big brother Lidl.

The Schwartz Group, headquartered in Germany, is the largest supermarket retail chain in Europe, with a turnover of 125.3 billion euros (£104 billion). It operates through two main banners, Lidl and Kaufland, which boast more than 12,600 stores across Europe between them and 960 in the UK.

Aldi is another German-based supermarket retail chain that has made a significant impact across Europe. The company operates under two separate divisions, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud which between them boast more than 12,000 stores in 18 countries  including more than 1,000 here in the UK. It has a 106.3 billion euros turnover (£86 billion).

Of these two German giants Lidl is the younger but also the larger. It hails from Germany’s thriftiest state (according to popular belief), Baden-Württemberg. Lidl has been able to overtake the original discounter Aldi in almost all European markets as of 2023, data from Statista Consumer Insights shows.

The third biggest supermarket in Europe again comes from Germany although their turnover is much less at 63.7 billion euros (£56 billion). Rewe’s diverse portfolio of store formats, includes REWE supermarkets, Penny discount stores and toom Baumarkt DIY stores. The group operates more than 8,300 outlets, with its network incorporating Germany, Austria, Italy and many central and Eastern European markets.

And the Germans also take fourth place in the European supermarket league with Edeka which has a turnover of 61 billion euros (£51 billion). The chain also operates Netto Marken-Discount discount outlets. Edeka has a store network of some 3,600 outlets.

The first UK supermarket to make it into Europe’s top ten is Tesco which had a 56.7 billion euro turnover in 2021 (£47 billion).

The chain has 2,932 stores here and has operations in Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia, making it Europe’s fifth-biggest supermarket group.

A holiday in France is never complete without a trip to a Carrefour, France’s biggest supermarket which comes in in sixth place, boasting a network of more than 11,000 stores, ranging from convenience outlets to large-scale hypermarkets.

E.Leclerc is another French chain, a  longtime market leader in France, with around 1,500 stores and in seventh place in the European supermarket charts. Les Mousquetaires, which is best known for its Intermarché banner, is a French retail group that operates under a number of banners, including Bricomarché DIY stores and comes in eighth with more than 2,650 stores in its portfolio, including a presence in Portugal, Poland and Belgium.

Another UK supermarket chain scrapes into the top ten at number nine. Sainsbury’s reported an annual turnover of 36.4 billion in 2021 (£30 billion) but its combined turnover with Tesco still doesn’t equal Lidl’s parent company across Europe. It has more than 2,200 stores in its portfolio.

Rounding off the list is French retailer Auchan, a multinational retail group with a presence in 13 countries and more than 4,000 outlets across its network. The retailer reported a turnover of €31.6 billion in 2021 (£26 billion) according to European Supermarket Magazine.