Mercadona supermarket chain in Spain reports 5% rise in profits

SPAIN’S market-leading supermarket Mercadona reported a 5% rise in profits last year as consumers had to deal with increased prices.

The company made €718 million in 2022- up from €680 million the previous year.

Presenting the retailer’s annual results on Tuesday, the president and main shareholder, Juan Roig, said that €161 million in dividends had been paid out and in ‘the interests of transparency’, he declared his annual salary as €11 million.

“We firmly believe that entrepreneurs, managers and workers are the ones who generate wealth in a country”, said Roig.

“The more honest entrepreneurs there are, the better a country will go and the benefits are necessary,” he added.

Over rising food prices, Juan Roig said his business had cut profit margins by 0.6% to help customers.

“We have lowered the margin which worked out at €140 million last year to mitigate the effects of inflation that we had to transfer to our bosses (customers),” he commented.

Roig said that Mercadona ‘had argued a lot’ with suppliers to persuade them not to raise prices.

“I have not seen this rise in prices since the late 1970s but if you don’t increase them, then you run out of products,” he added.

During 2022, Mercadona opened 63 new stores to reach 1676 establishments in total across Spain and Portugal.

In addition, 49 outlets were closed and 41 were renovated with €923 million euros invested- €650 million of that figure going to openings and renovations.

€130 million was spent on expanding the logistics operation and €143 million in digital transformation.

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