Drafted 25 May 2024, updated 31 July 2025.
Above : Action had sales of € 7.8 billion in the first half of 2025, a growth of 18% in 13 countries with 3,034 points of sale.
On a like-for-like basis, it grew by 6.8%.
To understand the logic of the Action discount chain and its “healthy logic”, I recommend reading: How Discount stores could be more efficient (2024) but also : Action, the silent revolution of the large European retailer (2025).
The following insights have as their source: L’Express of May 2024, the figures are a bit ‘outdated’ because Action has crazy growth!
“The same scene was repeated no less than 74 times in 2023. Each time, the observation is the same: customers come running. Like at the end of December, when Action planned to open its second shop in Paris, in the 19th arrondissement. The security commission, mandatory for the opening of an establishment open to the public, was late. After hours of waiting, the brand new 1,400 square metre space finally received the green light. “Nobody knew when we would open and yet, in less than an hour, the shop was full,” recalls Robin Roy, director of operations at Action France.
The company, based in the Netherlands, limits its marketing expenditure as much as possible and did not even announce the event. It doesn’t really need to, word of mouth and social networks do the trick. ‘It benefits from free viral marketing,’ points out Noria Cung, co-founder of retail specialist Pixis Conseil. The madness around the brand can also be seen on the streets, where white shopping bags with the distinctive blue logo embossed on them abound.
READ ALSO: Saving money and ‘treasure hunting’: how the Action brand became a phenomenon
Having landed in France in 2012, Action has carved out a niche for itself among discounters, alongside the historic La Foir’Fouille and Gifi. In 2015, the brand had only about sixty establishments in France. At the beginning of the year[2024], it celebrated its 800th opening, in Aulnay-sous-Bois[in 2025 there will be 1000 ]. So much so that France has quickly become, by far, its largest market, ahead of the Netherlands. Details by country are not disclosed, but in 2023 the company generated a total turnover of 11.3 billion euros, up 27.8% compared to 2022. Better still, for the past two years it has been at the top of the list of favourite brands of the French, ahead of Decathlon and Leroy Merlin.“They have managed to create a brand image. In the beginning we didn’t take too much responsibility to go into Action. Now it is becoming a standard: because consumers are proud, they want to make it known,’ analyses Noria Cung.
6.000 references divided into 14 categories [largely non-food]
And the brand does not intend to stop there. After being slowed down by Covid, Action has regained the cruising speed of new openings. “We have a map of the ‘white zones’ in which we are not yet established, but this is starting to seriously shrink,” laughs Wouter de Backer, Belgian general manager of Action en France…”
Underneath healthy logics
