Rewe Group strengthens convenience competence

Sebastian Rennack
international retail analyst
Aletos Retail

German Rewe Group has inaugurated the country’s first Rewe To Go store located at a motorway rest area – Autobahnraststätte Rhynern Nord. This opening represents more than just the rollout of a new location. It signals the group’s continued investment in a strategically important segment where it has long claimed first-mover status in the German market: small-format convenience retail. The launch reinforces one of Rewe’s key differentiators within the German grocery sector – its ability to combine retail innovation with the growing convenience segment.

The pilot location at Rhynern Nord is operated in cooperation with Lekkerland, Rewe’s convenience wholesale subsidiary. Leveraging Lekkerland’s deep-rooted logistics and sourcing expertise, Rewe secures a structural advantage in chilled, ready-to-eat, and impulse-driven categories. At Rhynern Nord, Rewe To Go offers a chilled grab & go range, an in-house bake-off, and a ready-to-eat hot corner assortment tailored to the needs of time-sensitive highway travelers. With EV chargers, petrol pumps, and sanitary facilities co-located on site, the rest area evolves from a stopover point into a high-frequency retail location.

Rewe is the innovation leader in the German convenience segment

The Rewe To Go format has grown into a nationwide network of over 900 outlets, the majority embedded within Aral fuel stations through an exclusive partnership with BP’s German subsidiary. No other food retailer in Germany currently operates at this scale within the petrol station segment. Markt leader Edeka is master franchisee for Spar Express but hasn’t reached the same scale as Rewe has, making Rewe the undisputed segment leader. Rewe’s competitors Aldi and Lidl have made limited attempts to enter the compact urban space, but these pilots have not matured into scalable formats. Aldi Süd has tested small-footprint models abroad under the Aldi Local and Aldi Corner Store banners in the UK and Australia, yet there is no domestic rollout. Lidl launched a 500-square-metre city-format pilot store in central Munich in 2019, but the concept has not progressed further due to profitability constraints.

‘Proximity convenience’ through a German lens

Viewed through a German lens, this Rewe ecosystem is a major competitive advantage. In contrast to countries like Poland – where tens of thousands of independent mom-and-pop stores and micro-franchise formats like Żabka, abc, Chorten, and Nasz Sklep are an everyday part of the retail landscape – Germany lacks a comparable small-format structure. What does exist are traditional kiosks in urban areas, focused on tobacco, print media, and confectionery. ‘Proximity’ grocery retail in Germany is associated with a Rewe or Edeka supermarket or an Aldi or Lidl discounter in the larger vicinity. Rewe is the first large-scale food retailer to redefine what proximity retail can mean in the German context.

Rewe has succeeded in scaling convenience across multiple high-traffic use cases. Beyond its fuel-station partnership, the group is advancing autonomous store pilots, frictionless smart stores, and hybrid formats such as the Rewe To Go EV Lounge and Rewe Ready smart stores. The latest Rewe Ready unit opened half a year ago at Kamener Kreuz, embedded within Germany’s largest EV fast-charging park. The 18-square-meter autonomous container store operates 24/7, using AI-powered grab-and-go technology – further expanding Rewe’s presence in digitally-enabled roadside retail. Together, these projects establish a multi-format mobility ecosystem.

With the opening of its first highway-based Rewe To Go, Rewe Group not only unlocks a high-potential channel but also reaffirms its market leadership in German convenience retail. Its vertically integrated logistics via Lekkerland, exclusive strategic cooperation with Aral, and ongoing experimentation with scalable food-to-go concepts have enabled the group to build a competitive space no rival has yet been able to enter at comparable depth or consistency.