Ideas on the internationalisation of Italian large-scale retail trade from the book “Le Ossa dei Caprotti” at the Stati Generali dell’Export, Milan 11 October 2024

From the missed national champion of the 1960s, with GS – Esselunga, to the multi-regional companies of today. The opportunities missed by Italian large-scale retailers in e-commerce but also in the acquisitions that foreign retailers are making instead

Quick Take — Over the past five years, Penny Market’s soft discount turnover in Italy has grown but profitability is negative

In recent years, Penny Italia has experienced significant growth, going from a turnover of EUR 1.1 billion in 2019 to EUR 1.459 billion in 2023 (27.4%, with a growth of 8.85% in the last year)…

The EBIT from 2019 to 2023 were negative for the entire period: the values for 2020, 2021 and 2022 are slightly negative (around 0.%), while 2019 and 2023 show values over -2%, with 2023 being precisely -2%.

… the REWE Group’s management and financial support are crucial for a company growing in turnover but with high investments, which have yet to translate into adequate financial results.

Penny is a soft discount store (which would like to pretend that it is a supermarket, like Lidl).