The large supermarket chains have market share and penetration – or an extraordinarily high profit margin for their sector – but there are alternative models that without appearing at the top of those rankings, are also successful in their own parameters.
Covirán is a good case study: it is sustaining in Spain and Portugal, building an empire of proximity.
Why is it important. Covirán represents the alternative approach to the dominant distribution model. Your growth strategy (rural, cooperative) goes against nature of a sector used to consolidation.
This Granadina cooperative closed 2024 with revenues of 1,846 million euros (everything that is sold in all stores operating under its teaching), and with 617 million business figure of the gripo (which really invoices as a company).
- The negative reading is that it was just 0.13% more than in 2023.
- The positive reading is that the flat figure tells another story: it is changing its business model while conquering more territories.
Its benefit was 2.34 million euros over 617 million. 0.38% that sounds low because it is, but that allows it to achieve benefit, unlike older groups such as The panoramic. In 2024 he opened 148 stores, most concentrated in Catalonia and Andalusia. Its strength is in another aspect: it is the only purchase option in 307 rural municipalities. Mercadona or Carrefour fight through urban centers and the policy of less stores but that cover more potential clients, but Covirán is opting for the countryside. Its network (4,272 establishments) keeps the peoples that are unfeasible for large chains alive. In detail. It is another case of success of the cooperative model, such as that of the Valencian consume. Its 2,166 partners are, more than franchisees, small business owners. Of course, flat growth in sales when more stores have been opened clearly of a dilution of productivity per store. In fact, they closed two logistics platforms in Zamora and Ponferrada to optimize costs. The context. Covir will play that certain silent resistance against the hegemony of large surfaces. The chains are digitized, Amazon continues to extend tentacles, and this cooperative makes a more physical and local bet. Where it has a lot of advance margin is in the catalog of white brands, where it has advanced with 135 new references, but that continue to assume only 13% of the assortment. A long way to go in an increasingly hooked country to white brands. Between the lines. The cooperative also has in its favor a friendly look by the administrations. Recently they received the Social Economy Award from the Junta de Andalucía, a recognition of what administrations see as an antidote against rural depopulation. They will covir, in addition to other chains, compete against the temptation of online purchase, against local logistics platforms born from neighborhood initiatives, and against the rural exodus. That is why its success measures more than sales: it measures the viability of a model. Outstanding image | Covir will In WorldOfSoftware |
