KamLibrary - The Global Powers of Retailing 2009

As the global economy shifted in 2007 from relatively strong growth, to deceleration and on to modest recession in early 2008, consumers cut back on their spending and turned to discount retailers in ever increasing numbers, according to a new report, 2009 Global Powers of Retail, from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in conjunction with STORES Magazine.

This is demonstrated in the report, which ranks the 250 largest retailers in the world by fiscal 2007 sales figures, by the strong performance of discount retailers in the Top 10. The big movers were Schwarz Unternehmens Treuhand KG (Schwarz), owner of the Lidl supermarket chain, which climbed three places from 10th to 7th. Over the past five years, Schwarz has grown at a faster rate than any of the current Top 10 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 12.6 percent. Aldi GmbH (Aldi) also climbed this year and was the only new entry in the Top 10 taking the place of Sears Holdings Corporation (Sears).

Dr. Ira Kalish, Deloitte Research’s Director of Consumer Business added: “As we move through 2009, consumers will be intensely value-oriented, even more so than in the recent past. We are seeing this already with consumers shifting to more price focused retailers. For all retailers, this environment will require added attention to keeping costs under control.”

Forty four retailers experienced declining sales in 2007, compared with 36 the year before. Furthermore, the number of unprofitable retailers in the Top 250 doubled from seven in 2006, to 14 in fiscal 2007.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart) remained the world’s largest retailer ahead of Carrefour Group (Carrefour). Tesco PLC (Tesco) and Metro AG (Metro) both climbed one place as The Home Depot, Inc (Home Depot) suffered its first-ever annual sales decline in 2007 and dropped two places to 5th.

www.deloitte.co.uk

Date article published: January 2009

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