Belgians had to face serious questions

In one of Europe’s richest countries food retail is much more concentrated than in Hungary. Ten and a half million people live in Belgium and Nielsen counted 7,800 food stores (in Hungary there are 19,000) – ten years ago there were 9,000. After periods of growth, in the third quarter of last year food, household chemical and cosmetics sales remained stable in Belgium. In food retail, Belgium’s market leader is French retailer Carrefour, followed by Belgian companies Delhaize and Colruyt. These three companies realise half of food retail revenues; they are followed by two German players, Aldi and the Metro Group. From the presentation of Frédéric Cornet from the Brussels branch of Nielsen we learned that Aldi and Lidl increased sales in 2008, but in 2009 and 2010 their revenues fell. As Belgium is relatively small, borders are close enough for consumers to go shopping abroad, especially to the Netherlands and France: in 2009 the value of foreign shopping grew by 10 percent. As for consumer habits, Frédéric Cornet mentioned two trends: a part of consumers returned to the chains of the biggest retailers and consumers had less time for shopping – which means that they started visiting shops that were close to where they live. The financial crisis made some of Europe’s richest consumers face serious questions, e.g. Should they save money or keep spending? Shall they go shopping less often? Where to buy and what? Nielsen surveyed Internet using consumers in 28 European countries, asking ‘If the economic situation improves, which of your new consumer habits you intend to keep?’ In Belgium 54 percent plans to continue economising on gas and electricity and 30 percent will stick with cheaper food products.