Alex Trelinski
STAFF working for Mercadona supermarkets in Spain will get a 5.8% salary increase- in line with inflation- this January.
Workers got a 6.5% inflation-matching rise at the beginning of the year.
Details of next month’s increase were triggered by Friday’s announcement of Spain’s December inflation rate of 5.8%.
“The aim is to maintain the purchasing power of all people who form part of Mercadona, because they are the customers’ best asset,” Spain’s biggest private company said in a statement.
The increase will not only cover workers’ base salaries, as stipulated in its collective bargaining agreement, but also their total wages including bonuses, Mercadona added.
96,000 people are employed by the supermarket giant in Spain and Portugal, where staff will also get a wage rise to keep pace with inflation.
The retailer said recent economies to offset rising fixed costs had resulted in a productivity increase of 9% and savings of over €200 million euros.
Mercadona had a share of 25.8% of Spain’s competitive supermarket arena this year- up by 0.9% on 2021, despite an increased presence from multi-national chains Lidl and Aldi.
The company’s net profits for 2022 were €623 million and it has invested €6.2 billion in the last four years.
58 new stores were opened this year and 43 existing outlets were improved.
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