Billa Bulgaria grows double-digit

Billa in Bulgaria grew above food inflation last year, and faster than the food market average. As investor.bg quotes Billa Bulgaria CEO Vygintas Šapokas, Rewe Group’s international supermarket format saw sales grow by 15% to 1.42 billion Bulgarian leva (BGN, around €725 million) in 2023, well above the food inflation rate of 5.6% for the whole year. According to the company, Billa increased its market share by 0.5 percentage points last year, following an increase of 1.0 percentage points in 2022. This positive development was driven by a 5.4% increase in customer numbers over the year. For the first quarter of the current financial year, Billa reported an 11.5% increase in sales and a 6.8% increase in customers, while food inflation in the twelve months to the end of March was only 2.3%.

Billa intends to build on this positive momentum and plans to invest more than BGN 120 million (around EUR 60 million) in 2024. BGN 47 million will be invested in the construction of a new warehouse, which will be opened in Zagore in 2025. The remaining amount will be invested in the renovation of existing stores and the opening of 12 new stores.

Billa is the third largest food retailer in the country, after market leader Kaufland and second-largest Lidl. Already in 2022, the supermarket operator achieved one of the highest growth rates among the top retail players. All three top food players in the country are German food retailers. Billa Bulgaria EOOD’s consolidated net sales, according to balance sheet data in local currency, grew by 23.8% to 530 million euros in 2022. Lidl Bulgaria EOOD & Co KG’s sales growth in the same period was 27.4% in local currency to 1.02 billion euro, while Kaufland Bulgaria reported a 17.2% increase in leva to 1.13 billion euro.