Germany: Organic chains in the fast lane in 2011

In terms of new openings, the chains, with 52 stores (79 %), overtook more emphatically than ever before the owner-managed stores (14 or 21 %). The difference in retail space is similar: Alnatura, Bio Company, Denn’s Bio and the other chains account for approximately 25,775 m², which is around 80 % (2010: 53 %) of the newly created retail space. The number of organic chains in Germany has risen to 19. A new arrival on the scene is the Munich chain Grüner Markt. Included in our statistics are the Vitalia Bio/Reform-Markt stores, after insolvency and the takeover by the Greither family in 2010. Research by Organic-Market.Info reveals that the total retail area of all the chains is 174,100 m², which translates into an average per store of 518 m².
(Picture: In cooperation with Füllhorn, Denn’s opened a store in Pforzheim (Baden-Württemberg)At the end of 2011, 19 companies with at least five outlets each operated a total of 336 stores. In just a few cases, not all their stores had a retail area above the 200 m² mark that Organic-Market.Info uses as its definition of bigger specialist stores and organic supermarkets.

So, at about 53 %, more than half of all specialist organic stores and organic supermarkets belong to a chain. 13 of these chains expanded in 2011 by opening at least one new store. Out in front is Denn’s Bio with 23 new outlets, followed by Alnatura with nine new stores. The average sales area in the new chain stores, on which Organic-Market.Info’s assessment of 2011 is based, is 496 m². This figure shows that the retail area was 27 m² (about 6 %) higher than that of the independent stores, that on average had 469 m² at their disposal. Our calculations show that the average retail area of all new openings is 490 m².

Aleco (picture below right) is keeping to the north of Germany and is expanding moderately but steadily. With two new stores in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein (see our earlier report), this chain now has nine outlets with a total of 4,615 m².

In terms of the number of stores, in 2011 the leadership passed from Alnatura (picture below on left) to Denn’s Bio. Since December 2011, Alnatura, that has its headquarters in the south of Hessen, has been operating 69 organic supermarkets across the whole of Germany. In 2011, nine new SuperNaturMarkt stores were launched all over Germany - in Aschheim, Berlin, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Grenzach-Wyhlen, Hamburg, Hanover, Landsberg and Unterhaching. The retail area in Alnatura’s new stores in 2011 is an average of 561 m². The turnover of the SuperNaturMarkt stores in the last financial year to the end of September 2011 was an estimated 232 million euros, which equates to around 6,000 euros per square metre. The company has announced that its next new store will open in Hamburg in March.

In 2011, Bio Company created six new outlets - five in Berlin and one in Dresden (see our earlier report). The chain now has 25 outlets in all and 12,687 m² of retail area. In February 2012, it is planning to open a new store in Prenzlauer Berg and to extend one in Schoeneberg.

In 2011, Denn’s Bio once again increased its rate of expansion and is in the lead in the whole of Germany in terms of the number of outlets. This one chain accounts for 23 (2010:18) new organic supermarkets. Denn’s Bio stores were launched in Backnang, Berlin (five), Dachau, Gießen, Hamburg (three), Hanover (two), Cologne, Königsbrunn, Laatzen, Lüneburg, Meerbusch, Munich, Pforzheim, Schweinfurt, Tuttlingen and Unterschleißheim. By the end of the year, the company operated 79 stores with a total retail area of 40,404 m².

The chain ebl opened a new store in both Nuremberg and Erlangen in 2011. The company’s 19 wholefood stores have an estimated retail area of 8,030 m².

Erdkorn was not to be left out, and in October 2011 the company opened a store in Halstenbek near Hamburg. At the end of the year, however, it closed an outlet in Hamburg-Rotherbaum, so that Erdkorn starts the new year with seven stores.

The company Grüner Markt in Munich opened a new store in October, bringing its total to five organic supermarkets, each with over 200 m² of retail space. With two new stores in Munich, the regional chain VollCorner (picture below on left) increased its number of stores in 2011 to nine (see our earlier report). Landmanns Biomarkt launched its sixth store (500 m²) in December in Pfaffenhofen to the north-west of Munich.

LPG in Berlin also opened its sixth outlet in the summer. The 1,000 m² store is in the Friedenau district of Berlin. The company SuperBioMarkt AG launched its sixteenth store with organic bistro in September 2011 in Wuppertal.

Naturgut (picture on right) was busy in three locations in 2011. In July and September, two stores opened their doors in Stuttgart), and in November the store in Esslingen moved to a new location. Apart from its shops, the company also owns the organic bistro Brot & Café. In all, there are eight specialist Naturgut stores in Baden-Württemberg.

Since relocating its shop in Markt Schwaben (500 m²), the producer-consumer cooperative Tagwerk (picture on left) now operates six large-scale specialist organic stores and two wholefood stores in the Munich region (see our earlier report).

The priority for Vitalia (picture below on right) was the consolidation of the company after the takeover by Peter and Otto Greither at the beginning of 2010. They have not opened new outlets but, stage by stage, they are renovating all the stores and some have undergone a complete overhaul. Of the 83 health food stores, 17 have a retail area exceeding 200 m² (see our earlier report). (Picture on right: Vitalia store at Viktualienmarkt in Munich)

Companies are pressing ahead with expansion in the new year: Alnatura, Denn’s, Bio Company and no doubt others too are planning new specialist stores, although how many we will see and who will be the front runners at the end of 2012 remain exciting questions. Hopefully, the issue of socially responsible expansion will stay high on the agenda, so that we don’t end up with self-defeating, cut-throat competition.