Are we judging supermarket giants too harshly? Rewe Austria boss Marcel Haraszti lacks the appreciation of the public. He also expects more effort from a future government.
“Austria is not only an industrial country, we are also a trading country,” the CEO of Billa/Bipa said on Monday at the club of business journalists. Haraszti advocates expanding store opening hours, reducing indirect labor costs and simplifying land use.
Rewe boss: “Trade is always the bad guy”
The boss of Rewe Austria would like to see more appreciation for retail among politicians and the public. When it comes to the topics of soil capping and rising prices, the criticism was unjustified.
“Trade is always the bad guy.” But retail is “an engine for jobs in Austria,” says Haraszti. There are approximately 620,000 retail workers in this country and around 47,000 people currently work at Rewe Group Austria (Adeg, Billa, Billa Plus, Bipa and Penny), including approximately 2,000 apprentices. Rewe currently has more than 2,600 vacancies.
Opening hours “nostalgic nonsense”
The Austrian boss of the supermarket giant has been pushing for a liberalization of store opening hours for some time, for example an extension of the current maximum of 72 hours to 80 hours between Monday and Saturday. The opening hours arrangement is “nostalgic nonsense”. However, Haraszti is against a general Sunday opening. The so-called tourist zones that are open on Sundays are sufficient.
As a first step, Haraszti would like to see a complete liberalization of store opening hours for self-service boxes. According to a ruling by the Constitutional Court (VfGH), local supply containers without staff may only remain open as long as supermarkets. There is a need for such boxes in Austria because there are about 580 communities in the country without local supplies, the Billa/Bipa boss said.
There are approximately 1,000 items in a Billa box (60 square meters) with a self-service checkout; one box is tested in Wiener Neudorf opposite the Rewe International branch.
Business is going well in Austria
The manager is satisfied with the sales development in Austria. This year “Stable business development” was registered. Haraszti declined to reveal details about the business development. The trends towards private label and promotional items on the one hand and towards organic, regional, vegetarian and vegan on the other hand would continue.
A few years ago, Rewe lost its market leadership in the domestic food trade to Spar. This year, Spar’s market share is 36.8 percent and Rewe’s market share with Adeg, Billa and Penny is 33.6 percent. The discounters Hofer and Lidl have a market share of approximately 23 percent. The boss of Rewe Austria does not see the high concentration in the food retail sector in Austria as a problem. “It’s the toughest competition there is. We don’t wish each other anything.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
