Spar is losing money, but they are not withdrawing

At the end of the year, the retail company operated 641 stores and, together with the units of the franchise network, employed 17,000 employees. In the past year, the company opened five new stores across the country and modernized four. He spent a total of almost HUF 10 billion on these.

The biggest development of the past year took place in Debrecen, where the city’s second Interspar store opened its doors. Located on Mikepércsi út, the hypermarket with a sales area of ​​2,600 square meters was completed with an investment of HUF three billion. A new 984 square meter supermarket was opened in Sárospatak at a cost of almost HUF 750 million. Also in Békéscsaba, on Lencsési út, a new supermarket renovated at a cost of HUF 120 million opened its doors to customers. The Spar network also expanded in the capital: the company handed over a new, family-friendly City Spar store on Fehérvár út, completed at a cost of more than HUF 300 million. A 700-square-meter Spar supermarket was opened in the 15th district of Budapest, on Szentmihályi út, with an investment of HUF 1.35 billion.

The company’s franchise network expanded by twenty-five stores in 2023. The 273 stores of the network, which has been operating since 2012, achieved a total turnover of HUF 134.5 billion in 2023.

The company’s home delivery program is already available in 200 settlements. In 2023, the service was launched in Győr, Keszthely, Pápa, Debrecen, Szolnok, Pécs and Zalaegerszeg.

The company’s Regnum meat plant has also developed. In 2023, a new shelf system was added to the auxiliary material warehouse, a part of the mechanical engineering was transformed, the lighting became more modern, and a carbon dioxide-based cooling system was built.

From Regnum’s two units, 1.2 million kilograms of ground beef, 25.6 million kg of ground pork and 37.6 million kg of private label products went to Spar stores last year. The net turnover of the plant in Bicske in 2023 was HUF 65.92 billion, while that of Perbáli was HUF 11.41 billion.

The company is not withdrawing

Spar presented the annual results at a press conference, at which they said that although the decision to withdraw was not made by them, but by the owner, the answer to the withdrawal was “no” during conversations with them.

Gabriella Heiszler, the company’s managing director, spoke about this. Although the company’s results will come out in May, he said

Spar was also unprofitable in 2023, to the same extent as in 2022.

The leader also said that in 2023, the company paid about HUF 30 billion in special taxes to the state coffers, if it had not been for this, they would have been profitable, reports Pénzcentrum.

Cover image source: Spar