The companies of the Schwarz Group, which include Kaufland and Lidl, have successfully completed the 2022 financial year and can point to strong sales growth. With more than 575,000 employees, they were able to achieve a total turnover of an impressive 154.1 billion euros, which corresponds to an increase of 15.4 percent compared to the previous year.
Despite the challenges posed by inflation and higher interest rates, the Schwarz Group was able to report stable annual financial statements. The increasing costs for merchandise, raw materials, energy and transport were partially offset thanks to efficient process management and not fully passed on to customers. In addition, new customers were gained thanks to the high availability of goods, attractive prices and innovative product ranges. The number of branches was increased by 400 to around 13,700.
Kaufland recorded sales growth of 16.1 percent to 31.8 billion euros , including the integrated real stores. Lidl increased sales by 13.8 percent to 114.8 billion euros.In addition, a total turnover of 1.9 billion euros was achieved in the online area, which corresponds to an increase of 8.5 percent compared to the previous year.
The environmental division PreZero also contributed to the success of the group. The takeovers in 2021 increased sales by an impressive 84.7 percent to 3.9 billion euros.The manufacturing companies of the Schwarz Group delivered goods worth around 3.4 billion euros to Lidl and Kaufland at internal transfer prices, which corresponds to an increase of 29.7 percent compared to the previous year. This also includes sales from the recently acquired pasta factory and the new digital coffee factory.
With investments of around 8 billion euros, the stationary business was strengthened and strategic projects and digital business areas were advanced. The main focus was on securing the supply chains, expanding and modernizing the branches and further developing key innovation drivers such as digital infrastructure and IT security.
Source: Schwarz-Gruppe