Willy’s leading Axfood to another strong quarter
As the first major Nordic retailer to post Q3/2023 results, Willy’s reported another strong quarter. With +15,8% growth, the soft discount chain has its sixth straight double-digit growth quarter. Where most of the grocers fail to grow above the inflation, Willy’s has been easily outperforming inflation throughout the tumultuous times of 2022 and 2023.
The strong performance of Willy’s was crowned by the healthy, albeit slightly decreased, operating margin of 6%. According to the company, the price increases of the suppliers were not fully put into the prices for consumers, thus decreasing Willys’ margins.
“Willys’ momentum is indeed very strong. The number of new customers is continuing to grow at a rapid rate and new and existing customers alike are becoming increasingly loyal and shopping more at the chain.”
Other parts of the Axfood family of chains grew also. Hemköp reported a robust +10,8% growth. This was the seventh consecutive quarter of growth for Hemköp, which has for years struggled to find a solid growth plan.
The last notable element of Axfood's growth is the way the company has also been able to outgrow the sluggish online market. Even though the online market has not been able to grow yet, Axfood has already reported it’s second-quarter growth for online. Currently, online represents only 3,6% of the total Axfood revenues.
Source: Axfood Q3/2023 presentation
