While other food distribution chains choose to ‘withdraw’ and focus on growing and consolidating in their home market and neighboring areas, Uvesco, better known for its BM Supermercados banner, is focused on its geographical diversification, especially with its growth plan in the Community of Madrid.
Headquartered in the Gipuzkoan town of Irún, the group has a 20% share in Euskadi where it concentrates 75% of its sales.
The CEO of Uvesco, José Ramón Fernández de Barrena, announced last week that the group will continue in 2021 with its growth strategy in Madrid, . The openings of these establishments will be in Collado Villalba, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Galapagar and four stores in central Madrid.
The rest of the facilities will start up in Castro Urdiales (Cantabria), Logroño (La Rioja) and Sopelana (Bizkaia). Likewise, Uvesco will carry out the expansion and comprehensive improvement of two of its Biscayan supermarkets and plans to promote the BM Shop franchise with 10 new stores. Altogether, 45 million euros will be allocated to increasing the network.
Reactivate the economy
The start of the conquest of the Madrid market by the Gipuzkoan group began in 2017, when it acquired 16 Gigante supermarkets. Since then its presence has been increasing and its goal is to reach 50 openings in 10 years, for which it will invest a total of 150 million.
In 2020, with the arrival of Covid-19, Uvesco focused on, on the one hand, guaranteeing supply, and on the other, “reactivating the economy through the opening of new supermarkets, reinforcing its commitment to local suppliers and job creation”, explained Fernández de Barrena.
Thus, and despite the difficulties, the Basque group maintained its expansion plan, which involved the opening of seven new own supermarkets in Santander (Cantabria), Zarautz (Gipuzkoa) and cincon in the Community of Madrid (Majadahonda, Las Rozas, Colmenar Viejo , San Sebastián de los Reyes and Madrid Centro).
It also carried out the renovation of stores, among which the reforms of the eleven supermarkets acquired from the Simply chain in Bizkaia in 2019, and comprehensive reforms in Irún and El Escorial, in Madrid, stood out. BM added the start-up of five franchises to the previous investments.
Uvesco closed the year 2020 with 240 of its own supermarkets, 163 of them located in the Basque Country, and the rest in Cantabria, Navarra, La Rioja, Madrid and Ávila, an online store, and four logistics plants, in addition to 13 BM Shop franchises. To do this, it made a total investment of 38 million euros.
The CEO of the group highlighted the exponential development of the online store during the pandemic, which experienced a great boost as it became a new and safe purchase option. In this way, online sales skyrocketed and even multiplied by ten during the confinement and maintained their pulse afterwards.
Regarding the business during the past year, Uvesco had a turnover of 954 million, 23% more than in 2019 and 16% more than expected before the arrival of the coronavirus, due to the large consumption of food and beverages. This increase in business has caused the food distribution chain to gain 1.08 points of market share, the largest increase in its history.
Benefits
In addition, Fernández de Barrena recognized -in the face of demonstrations from other food chains that assure that their profits have not increased due to the pandemic- that their black numbers also grew in 2020, despite the extraordinary allocations allocated to security measures, some four million euros, and the staff bonus for 7.5 million.
Uvesco’s forecasts for 2021 point to a turnover of 910 million, a drop of more than 4% compared to 2020, “but 18% more compared to the figures for 2019, a year of evolution without a pandemic,” said its top manager. . The establishment in the Community of Madrid will contribute more than 10% of the business this year.
In the personnel section, the workforce increased in 2020 by 543 people, which now adds 5,664 workers in its network. During this year, 200 jobs will be created in the openings of centers.
Uvesco explained that its strategic plan will be based on four axes: personal safety; investment to grow with new stores; commitment to local products, “which is what a consumer concerned about their food, health and environment demands”; and commitment to innovation and digitization. Likewise, thanks to the agreement reached with Iberdrola, it is the first distribution company whose electricity consumption comes 100% from renewable sources.
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