Spar Hungary closes 2023 in the red but will not exit the country

At the end of the year, the Hungarian arm of the Austrian retail chain operated 641 stores and employed 17,000 people, including the franchise network. Last year, the company opened five new stores across the country and modernised four others. In total, it spent almost HUF 10 billion on these.

Last year's biggest development was in Debrecen, where the city's second Interspar store opened its doors. The 2,600-square-metre hypermarket on Mikepércsi road was completed with a HUF 3 billion investment. In Sárospatak, a new supermarket with a floor area of 984 square metres was opened with a budget of almost HUF 750 million.

In Békéscsaba, on Lencsési road, a new supermarket, renovated with HUF 120 million, has opened its doors to customers. In the capital, the Spar network has also expanded: the company opened a new, family-style City Spar store on Fehérvári road, which was completed with more than HUF 300 million. In the 15th district of Budapest, on Szentmihályi road, a 700-square-metre Spar supermarket was opened with an investment of HUF 1.35 billion.

The company's franchise network has expanded to 25 stores in 2023. The 273 stores in the network, which has been operational since 2012, had a combined turnover of HUF 134.5 billion in 2023.

The company's home delivery programme is now available in 200 municipalities, with the service launched last year in Győr, Keszthely, Pápa, Debrecen, Szolnok, Pécs and Zalaegerszeg.

The company's Regnum meat plant has also been upgraded. In 2023, a new shelving system was added to the processing aids warehouse, part of the installations was modified, the lighting was modernised and a carbon dioxide-based cooling system was built.

Last year, 1.2 million kilograms of boned beef, 25.6 million kilograms of boned pork and 37.6 million kilograms of private label products were delivered to Spar stores from Regnum's two units. The net turnover of the Bicske plant in 2023 was HUF 65.92 billion, while that of the Perbál plant was HUF 11.41 billion.

Spar not exiting Hungary

Spar presented the annual results at a press conference, at which they said that although the decision to pull out was not theirs, but the owner's, the answer to a possible exit was "no" when talking to them.

Gabriella Heiszler, Managing Director of the company, spoke about this. Although the company's earnings results will be published in May, she said

Spar incurred a loss also in 2023, about as much as in 2022.

She also said that the company paid about HUF 30 billion in special taxes to the state in 2023, and if it had not been for this, they would have been profitable, Pénzcentrum reported.

Cover photo: Spar