What you need to know
The German retail scene experienced another strong year in 2018. Domestic demand grew further as a result of higher wages and greater purchasing power, which in turn led to a 3.4% increase in consumer spending on food, drink and tobacco to €232 billion. In 2019, growth in spending will slow down considerably, partly due to the drop in inflation for food and drinks, and we anticipate consumer spending to increase by just 1.4% in the year.
While Edeka remains the leading player by sales, there is no single dominant player operating across the entirety of Germany. Food discounters increased their share of all spending to 46.4% in 2018 and continue to compete with supermarkets, which account for 39.6% of the total, in a rather mature market. German food shoppers continue to split their grocery shopping across retailers, so food chains need to play to their strengths and differentiate their offering.
Several players have engaged in initiatives to reduce food wastage, and the war against plastic has taken on a whole new level, forcing players to go beyond the ban on plastic bags to ensure consumers will continue to shop in their stores.
Areas covered in this report
This report covers the grocery sector in Germany, with a focus on supermarket, hypermarket and convenience store operators. The report does not cover the smaller food retailers, such as specialists (bakers, butchers etc), markets, CTNs or wholesalers, in detail, nor does it cover food sold via non-food retailers, such as department stores.
The report combines analysis of the market in Germany, including market sizes and forecasts for consumer spending on grocery items and food retailers’ sales, along with our in-depth consumer data which analyses shoppers’ behaviours in Germany. We also include a number of relevant company profiles.
For our consumer research this year we asked questions on the following topics:
Who shops for groceries
How people shop for groceries.
Grocery retailers used
Attributes associated with different types of grocery store.
For the purpose of this report, Mintel has used the following definitions:
Consumer spending: The total amount spent by German households (including sales tax) on food, drink and tobacco. This is for retail purchases only, and excludes foodservice spending, such as through bars, hotels and restaurants. Tobacco is the exception to this rule.
Retail sales: Total sales of all types of goods and services (excluding sales tax) by grocery retailers. It includes online sales of these retailers where the majority of sales are in bricks and mortar outlets.
