Food retailers made a loss of €6bn in Greece for the period of 2008 to 2015, which works out to an aggregate decline of 25 percent. An additional drop of 2 to 4 percent is anticipated for 2016 according to the findings of a recent study performed by Infobank Hellastat. The overall food retail business is expected to decrease to €18bn.
The decrease in the overall size of the market had an important effect on the number of supermarket chains and stores operation in the market. Before the crisis, there were 100 supermarket chains, but this has fallen to less than 60. The figure could decrease further subject to recent mergers and acquisitions such as cooperation of Marinopoulos-Carrefour group with Sklavenitis Group as well as the acquisition of Veropoulos Group by Macro Group.
By the time current mergers are completed, it’s expected that the top 5 supermarket chains in Greece will control 75 percent of the total market.
