Mercadona marked five years since the opening of its first unit in Portugal, which opened on July 2, 2019 in the parish of Canidelo, in Vila Nova de Gaia. The company began its expansion in the country, having subsequently opened 9 more stores that same year in the districts of Porto, Aveiro and Braga.
Since that year, the Spanish retailer has invested a total of 1 billion euros in Portugal, which has enabled it to open, to date, 50 stores, accumulating sales of more than 2.770 million euros, and two Logistics Blocks - one in Póvoa de Varzim and the other in Almeirim, which will become operational later this year - with the latter representing an investment of over 250 million euros. As far as employment is concerned, Mercadona has generated 6,000 new jobs in the last half decade.
It was in 2016 that Mercadona, a local company in the distribution sector in Spain, announced that it would begin its first internationalization project in Portugal, having created the Portuguese company Irmãdona Supermercados, based in Vila Nova de Gaia.
The internationalization project in Portugal has allowed Mercadona to get to know new national producers and integrate them into its range of suppliers, something that will be increased as the project progresses. The company's commitment to Portuguese suppliers is reflected in the more than 3,000 million euros in purchases from national suppliers since 2019. In the last five years, Mercadona has donated around 5,500 tons of food to national and local institutions in the different regions where it is present.
"Mercadona has made progress and learned a lot from entering the highly competitive Portuguese market. Today we are proud to say that the effort we have made to adapt to the country is reflected in people's desire to have our supermarkets close by, but there is still a lot to be done to become the Portuguese company we want to be in Portugal. These 5 years have proved to be a good start and today we mark the motivation to continue building a project of shared and sustainable growth, which generates employment and wealth in the country, contributing to its economic development," says Inês Santos, Director of Institutional Relations at Mercadona in Portugal.
