VALENCIA-BASED supermarket chain Mercadona has just opened its first store in Portugal, and intends to follow it up with another nine branches before 2019 is out.
The grocery empire founded by Juan Roig – which started as a family-run food shop and eventually led to its owner being a permanent fixture in Spain's top 10 richest residents' list – has gone international for the first time with a store in the Vila Nova de Gaia neighbourhood of Oporto, within the old Manoel Marques Gomes football stadium grounds.
Mercadona's expansion plans beyond Spain began with an investment of €160 million in 2016 and a further cash injection of €100m this year.
Although the Vila Nova de Gaias store is the first one outside Mercadona's home country, the firm had already set up a logistics centre in the Póvoa de Varzim area of Oporto, an innovation centre in the Matosinhos district of the city, and offices in both Oporto and Lisbon.
So far, the company has 900 employees based in Portugal and is expecting to increase the payroll to 1,100 by the end of this year.
It works with 300 Portuguese suppliers, from whom it has already made €203m in purchases.
In a week's time, Mercadona will open its second Portuguese store, in Matosinhos, followed by another in Maia in a fortnight and a third in Gondomar within three weeks.
As at the end of 2018, Mercadona had 87,000 staff members, of whom over 90% were on fixed, permanent job contracts, and reported annual sales of €24.3 billion.
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