Axfood winning the market by a wide margin

Axfood and especially it’s price focused chain Willy’s is winning the grocery market in Sweden by a wide margin. As the market growth has decreased to low single digits, Axfood has been able to maintain growth.

In Q1/2022 Axfood grew by 5% (comparable store sales +4,1%), when the market grew by 1,3%.

The growth of Willy’s (+5,4%) indicates that price is becoming ever more important for the customer.

For online Axfood was able to manage better than the market overall. As the online market decreased -19%, Axfood’s online channel decreased slightly less, by -16,6%.

However, Axfood’s online business seems to be growing from an elevated level. Despite being below the highest pandemic peaks in terms of revenues, Axfood online revenues are close to pandemic levels and significantly higher than the pre-pandemic levels (double to Q1/2020).