The openings will take place in Bizkaia (Sopelana), Cantabria (Castro Urdiales), La Rioja (Logroño) and in the Community of Madrid (Collado Villalba, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Galapagar and four in Madrid Centro), following the expansion plan started in 2017. The company will also fully expand and improve the two supermarkets in Bizkaia. Within the development of the BM Shop franchise, 10 new projects are also expected to start, supporting job creation with new entrepreneurs.
Online sales multiplied tenfold. In order to adapt to the circumstances, the group expanded the service areas and opening hours, adapted its range and set up a telephone service for senior citizens. Currently and despite demand’s stabilisation, sales are still three times higher than they were pre-Covid and the challenge is to continue betting on this segment, as well as continuing the investment to improve the shopping experience and expand the service areas. Uvesco has a new app, with which it is reducing the use of paper through digital tickets and boosting offer customisation.
With this approach and with expectations for the sanitary situation to improve in the second half of the year, the projection for 2021 is to reach a 910 million euro turnover.
2020 Balance
Despite the difficulties, the company continued its expansion in 2020, which included the opening of seven of its own new supermarkets in Santander (Cantabria), Zarautz (Gipuzkoa) and the Community of Madrid (Majadahonda, Las Rozas, Colmenar Viejo, San Sebastián de los Reyes and Madrid Centro). It also refurbished some of its assets, in particular the eleven supermarkets it acquired from chain Simply in Bizkaia in 2019, and fully refurbished those in Irun and El Escorial, in Madrid. It also started five new franchises last year.
In 2020 Uvesco reached 237 million references, 23% more than in 2019. As part of its expansion and staff increase plan, Uvesco closed the year with 5.664 professionals, representing a growth of 543 new jobs and it also invested more than 4.6 million euro in training.
The company ended the year with 240 supermarkets of its own brand in the Basque Country, Cantabria, Navarre, La Rioja, Madrid and Avila, one online shop and four logistic platforms, besides 13 BM Shop franchises. To reach these numbers, it invested a total of 38 million euro on openings and refurbishments.
To this should be added an extra 18.5 million euro invested on safety and prevention, seeking to guarantee the safety of staff and customers, reinforcement of the staff and to reward the extraordinary effort of its professionals.
As a result of this effort and 2019’s particular situation, Uvesco had a 954 million euro turnover, 23% higher than 2019 and with a 1.08% growth in its market share according to data from consultant Nielsen.