Eastern Europe to drive grocery growth

Central and Eastern Europe are set to drive growth in the European grocery market, with sales in the region expanding nearly three faster than Western Europe over the next five years, according to the IGD.

Research by the IDG found that Central and Eastern Europe will experience dynamic growth over the five-year period, growing 6.5 per cent annually to 2022 compared to 2.4 per cent in Western Europe. Overall, Europe’s grocery retail market is set to grow 3.8 per cent annually.

“We expect stronger growth in CEE because many local retailers, including X5 Retail Group, Lenta and the discount operators, are planning extensive store opening programmes in large markets like Russia and Romania, where market consolidation is still low,” said Milos Ryba, IGD’s head of discount and CEE. “Although bigger stores will remain the continent’s largest grocery format, we are forecasting that discount retailers will show the most dynamic sales growth to 2022, underpinned by new store openings and remodelling existing stores. The discounter chains are continuing to focus on becoming a ‘main shop’ destination for more shoppers and are increasing their presence in city centres, residential areas and on main shopping streets to help achieve this.”