Lidl drives growth of Schwarz Group, leader of European retailing

The German grocery retail giant Schwarz Group saw its revenues grow by +8,5 %, especially due to inflation. The company stated that improved processes enabled it to grow revenues with the same number of employees as the year before: 575 000.

The growth was driven by Lidl, which represents the majority of the group’s revenues. The discount chain is responsible for 75% of the revenues. Lidl reported 9,5% revenue growth, whereas hypermarket chain Kaufland grew by 7,8%. Last year Kaufland was the driver of the growth for the Group.

Online was the only part of the business that saw revenues decline. The online sales of the Schwarz Group declined by -9,4% and ended up at 1,7 billion €.

Schwarz continues as clearly the biggest in Europe

The strong growth of Lidl over the last decade has made Schwarz Group the biggest European retailer by far. The main rival Aldi’s revenue figures are yet unknown for 2022, let alone 2023.

Of the more traditional grocers, Carrefour and Ahold reported meagre growth compared to Schwarz. Both of them remain below the 100 billion € revenue level.

In fact, Schwarz Group is world’s second biggest grocer in terms of revenues behind only Walmart. Kroger, the biggest supermarket chain in the US, reported revenues of $150 billion (138 billion €) for 2023. This makes Schwarz about 20% bigger than Kroger.