Esselunga top for profits but the real boom is for the discounters

For the big retailers, 2020 was an exceptional year: especially in the first phase of the pandemic, the hoarding effect and e-commerce caused a boom in sales.
Retail sales increased by 5%, of which 1% is attributable to the surge in the online channel. Showing greatest overall growth were the discounters (+8.7%), then regular supermarkets (+6.8%), according to a recent study which expects total grocery retail to decline this year by 1.6%, thus bringing total growth to +3.3% over two years. For e-commerce, on the other hand, another strong push of 60% is expected, which could bring this market segment to 3% of total grocery sales, two years ahead of pre-pandemic estimates. However, this share is still quite limited if we consider that in various countries it is between 5 and 10%, or even higher.
Although the market share of the top 5 in the sector is growing strongly, passing between 2015 and 2019 from 52.8% to 57.5%, it is still significantly lower when compared with France, Great Britain and Germany.
Among the 17 Italian groups considered, Conad took top position after the purchase of the Italian Auchan network, followed by Selex (with the Sun consortium).
In leading position for cumulative profits in the five-year period 2015-2019 is Esselunga, with overall net results of €1.3 billion.
Esselunga has the world record for sales per square meter with € 15,913. In second and third place are the English giants J Sainsbury and Tesco.