Consumer and retailer trends

GfK Hungária examines the competition between sales channels in its “Kereskedelmi Analízisek 2006” study. Last year brought expansion for modern sales channels again.
According to the comprehensive analysis by GfK, household expenditure spent on food fell by 6 per cent in the 2000-2005 period. 23 forints out of 100 are spent on food, whereas this is 10-15 in developed countries. The weight of our region in the world market of food estimated at approximately USD 3500 billion is expected to grow. The market share of hyper markets only grew by 0,2 per cent in 2006, which means the boom is slowing down. Supermarkets increased their market share by 1 per cent, mainly at the expense of hyper markets and chains composed of small stores. Discount stores have also grown at the expense of hyper markets and chains of small stores, but the main driving force behind expansion was the increase in the size of purchases. The average number of purchases per household has also increased from 52 per year in 2005 to 54 per year in 2006. Small stores are losing a lot of purchases to modern sales channels, like supermarkets and discount stores. Chains of small stores however, succeeded in diverting a lot of purchasing power from independent small stores and their market share fell by only 0,1 per cent in 2006 to 14,5 per cent.