Germany: Significant increase in size of organic supermarkets in 2010

Research by Organic-Market.Info in Germany has revealed that in the first half of 2010 28 new organic supermarkets opened or increased their retail area by moving to new premises. A projection for the whole year means nearly 60 new launches – which is roughly the same as in 2009 when 58 new specialist stores (over 200 m² retail area) and organic supermarkets (over 400 m²) opened their doors. Three of the new specialist wholefood stores are the result of changing location or extending their premises. Around 15,086 m² of organic sales area has been created in the current year, which is 65 % more than in the same period in 2009 (9,100 m²). At 660 m², loss of retail area through moving to new premises or closures of stores is comparatively small.

(Picture: Recently opened Alnatura store in Berlin-Kreuzberg)

New openings and expansion during the rest of this year are being planned or have taken place in July, examples being outlets belonging to Alnatura, Bio Company, Denn’s Bio (picture: Heilbronn) and SuperBioMarkt.
 

If we assume over the whole of the current year 55 to 60 new organic supermarkets of the same size as in the first six months, they would create an additional 30,000 m² of retail space, and the total number of organic stores would rise to over 600.
 

Last year, the number of organic supermarkets rose by 58. 30 of the new stores (about 52 %), were outlets of an organic chain. By the end of December 2009 about 37,000 m² of new retail space had been created, with the chains accounting for 61 % of the expansion.
 

From January to June 2010, single entrepreneurs have been responsible for well over half of new openings and the new retail space (61 %). In total, they have opened 17 new stores in Bürstadt, Dresden, Essen, Frankfurt (picture to the right: Biomarkt Picard), Halle (picture to the left: Naturata), Karlsbad, Mühlheim, Passau, Peiting, Radebeul, Rottweil, Senden, Stuttgart, Trier, Trostberg and Weiden. Therefore we can speak with justification of a renaissance of owner-managed stores, as we did in an article we published a short time ago.
 

In the past, the average retail area in these stores was much smaller than in the chain stores. In 2009 for example, it was smaller by 71 m². However, this is not the case this year: with an average of 542 m², the retail area has been a whole eight square metres above the average of the chain stores. 11 of the 28 new stores (39 %) come in this category. There are currently 18 chains, with a total of 250 stores, in the organic supermarket business in Germany but there is clear evidence that it is not only the big chains that are successful and in a position to create large-scale stores.

Alnatura GmbH, that has its headquarters in Hesse, is still the market leader in the whole of Germany with its 55 stores in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine Westphalia and Rhineland Palatinate that have a total sales area of 32,000 m². In February, Alnatura opened its first store in Berlin-Kreuzberg and in March its second store in Cologne-Bayenthal (picture).
 

Bio-Company (picture) has its headquarters in the capital and this year it has already opened two new stores there – in March in Glienicke (Brandenburg) and in June in Köpenick. The store in Charlottenburg was altered in May and enlarged by nearly 200 m².
 

Expansion by Dennree with Denn’s Biomarkt stores is also continuing in 2010. Three stores were launched in April, in Gröbenzell near Munich, Heilbronn and Münster (picture below on left). This was followed by a store in Stuttgart in May and two more in June in Brunnthal and Hanover. The company now has 43 outlets in Germany.
 

The regional distribution of new openings by federal state is as follows: Bavaria is in the lead with seven new stores and Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine Westphalia come second with five each. In third place is Berlin with three new outlets. Hesse and Saxony each saw two new openings in the first half of 2010, and one new organic supermarket was launched in each of the following states: Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Rhineland Palatinate and Saxony Anhalt. Thus in the first six months of this year four new organic supermarkets opened their doors in East Germany – more than we’ve ever seen before.
 

Conclusion: the increase in specialist organic stores and organic supermarkets, that began more than ten years ago, is continuing. In spite of growing competition in some big city locations, the entrepreneurs involved see the chance to succeed with a specialist model that focuses on a wide product range and giving customers first-class access to all available organic products. The fact that even difficult locations, such as in East Germany and smaller towns, are increasingly being opened up is a pleasing development. This means that there is a supply of organics near to where people live. As in the past, owner-managed stores can still make the most of their advantages in personal customer retention – even though in many a contested location such as in Munich and Berlin the air has become more rarified for individual entrepreneurs. The big chains can naturally adopt a quite different price policy from what is possible in the case of the owner-managed stores.