Supermarkets in Austria

2020 IMPACT

Proximity and convenience benefit supermarkets during pandemic

The largest overall channel within grocery retailers in value share terms, supermarkets greatly benefited from the pandemic and subsequent lockdown in Austria in March, mainly due to the home seclusion trend. Many consumers wanted to ensure that they had sufficient stock levels of essential groceries due to remote working and studying, which meant that they could reduce their visits to retailers due to concerns over coming into contact with others which had the potential to increase their risk of exposure to the virus.

Home seclusion trend results in greater demand for fresh ingredients due to opportunity to experiment with cooking from scratch

Although many Austrians experienced a significant dip in their disposable incomes during 2020 as a result of the pandemic including rising unemployment, which forced them to prioritise their expenditure, they were less reluctant to save money on groceries whilst confined to their homes. On the contrary, many treated themselves to high-quality foodstuffs in the face of uncertain times and cutbacks in other areas, including foodservice with the latter forced to close during the initial lockdown from mid-March to mid-May.

Fairly consolidated competitive landscape where Spar cements overall leadership in value share terms in 2020

Supermarkets remained a fairly consolidated competitive landscape in 2020, led by Spar Österreichische Warenhandels AG (Spar, Eurospar) in value share terms, followed by Rewe International, where its Billa banner is the overall brand leader in addition to having the highest number of outlets. Nevertheless, Spar has a competitive edge on its rival in terms of local customer knowledge due to the high share of Spar supermarkets operated by largely independent, locally anchored owners.

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