Mercadona's Portuguese adventure: the workforce shoots 40% in one year and hopes to leave the 'red' numbers behind

Posted at the door,

greeted all customers who crossed the threshold.

Next to him, his wife,

.

It was 9 in the morning and Mercadona has just opened its first supermarket in Portugal.

Dozens of customers had been queuing for a while at the door, in Vila Nova de Gaia, in the province of Porto.

-"We have been moved, my wife has cried when opening".

Four years of that image have not yet been completed.

It was in July 2019, with a pandemic involved, and Mercadona's commitment to the neighboring country has since been discreet, but intense and constant.

It is still his only international bet, although the Valencian businessman is always asked when there is an opportunity - and yesterday was no exception, in the presentation of the company's results in 2022 - about the possibility of opening the way in Italy or France

It's not time yet or It's is not the right time.

But, how is Mercadona doing in its Portuguese adventure?

The supermarket company that leads the Spanish market, with a market share of 27.2%, has revolutionized its Portuguese commitment this year, although it has not yet managed to make it profitable.

Irmãdona

, the name of the Mercadona company in Portugal [the company boasts of being "a Portuguese company with Spanish origin" in Portugal], has accumulated an investment of 540 million euros since its launch, of which 140 million only in 2022.

In the last twelve months, Mercadona has opened

there and now has a total of 39. It is present in nine districts: Porto, Braga, Aveiro, Viana do Castelo, Setúbal, Santarém, Viseu, Leiria and Lisbon.

It has reached five of them in 2022.

Its geographical

, still very selective, has led it this year, in the middle of the inflationary crisis, to

in Portugal by 40%, up to 3,500 workers.

In October, he also agreed to raise the entry salary in the neighboring country by 11%, after updating the remuneration of his staff by 9.6%, according to the CPI, to face inflation.

in Portugal has been

since January 2023 ,

about 915 euros net, approximately 28% more than the country's minimum wage (€887).

In addition, from the first year, workers have the right to receive the premium for objectives, which is an extra monthly payment in the first four work periods and two monthly payments when the second year of seniority is reached in section 5.

In

, for comparison,

, about 1,282 net per month.

Also in Spain the premium for objectives is applied.

This year, of the 99,000 workers that Mercadona has between the two countries, 98% of the workforce have received it: 405 million distributed in total.

Break even point in 2023

In Mercadona's balance sheet for 2022, Portugal has contributed 737 million in turnover, although it

The forecast, according to Roig, is to reach the break-even point [the moment in which a company covers its fixed expenses with its income and variables] this same year.

Along this path, Mercadona plans

from the aforementioned 140 million in 2022 to 280. "These resources will be used, mainly, for the opening of new supermarkets, for the construction, reform and expansion of its logistics blocks to continue reinforcing its optimization, as in Almeirim (Santarém), where what will be the second logistics block in Portugal and the largest that Mercadona has in the chain is being built," the company points out.

One of

when considering the deployment of the chain in Portugal has been to be perceived as a local company, not as a

Spanish company .

And the entire culture of the company, as well as its way of sourcing local products, has been adapted to the neighboring country.

Also their particular way of calling customers: if in Mercadona in Spain the customer is known as "the boss", in Portugal they work at the service of "o chefe".

Roig was "super happy" on Tuesday with his Portuguese adventure.

"We are very happy with how it is going and we believe that this year we are going to reach balance; from there we will have done the most difficult thing," he said.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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