The Mercadona supermarket chain in Spain reports a 5% increase in its profits

SPAIN’s market leading supermarket Mercadona reported a 5% increase in profit last year as consumers had to deal with rising prices.

The company earned 718 million euros in 2022, compared to 680 million euros the previous year.

When presenting the retailer’s annual results on Tuesday, the president and main shareholder, Juan Roig, said that 161 million euros have been distributed in dividends and in “the interest in transparency,” he declared his annual salary at 11 million euros.

“We firmly believe that businessmen, managers and workers are the ones who generate wealth in a country,” Roig said.

“The more honest businessmen there are, the better off a country will be and the benefits are necessary,” he added.

On rising food prices, Juan Roig said his business had cut profit margins by 0.6% to help customers.

“We have lowered the margin that last year resulted in 140 million euros to alleviate the effects of inflation that we had to transfer to our bosses (clients),” he commented.

Roig said that Mercadona “had discussed a lot” with the suppliers so that they did not raise prices.

“I haven’t seen this increase in prices since the late 1970s, but if you don’t increase prices, you run out of products,” he added.

During 2022, Mercadona opened 63 new stores, reaching a total of 1,676 establishments in Spain and Portugal.

In addition, 49 establishments were closed and 41 were renovated with an investment of 923 million euros, of which 650 million were allocated to openings and reforms.

130 million euros were spent on the expansion of the logistics operation and 143 million euros on digital transformation.

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