- [Food Retail Barometer 2024] The financial health of the world's 10 largest food retailers in 7 charts

4 Key points

The combined revenue of the Top 10 amounted to US$1.73 trillion. On average, this total grew by 2.7% in 2024. This is less than in 2023, when growth was up by 3%
Walmart, Costco and Kroger, the 3 largest food retailers in terms of revenue, are the only ones to have improved operating margin and net margin
While e-commerce failed to exceed 18% of sales in 2023, this ceiling was broken by Target, at 19.6%
The share of online sales grew the most at Walmart: from 15.4% in 2023 to 18% in 2024

For a fourth consecutive year, mind Retail compiled and analysed the financial indicators of the world’s largest food retailers marking revenue, retail sales growth, online sales share, operating margin, net margin and market capitalisation (see methodology). This barometer includes 10 global leaders in the sector. These are Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Target, Ahold Delhaize, Seven & I, Carrefour, Albertsons, Tesco and Aeon. We compare respective performances from 2017 to 2024. As Aldi has not published annual results since 2021, it could not be included in the panel. Schwarz Group, owner of Kaufland and Aldi, will be included in this analysis at a later stage, as it publishes indicators later than the others, at the end of May.

In Europe and the US, food inflation reached 1.9% in 2024

This year, the food distribution sector has again been marked by considerable instability (inflation, wars, supply chain tensions), and continued significant consumer spending trade-offs. In the Eurozone, the HICP (harmonised index of consumer prices) fell by 3 points in a year, to a rise of 2.4% between December 2023 and December 2024. In the food sector, the increase was 1.9% (Eurostat), a sharp slowdown. As a reminder, food inflation rose by 11.8% in 2023, after a rise of 10.5% in 2022. Over a rolling 3-year period, food inflation reached 25.4%.

In France, where food inflation stands at 1.8% in 2024, sales volumes of FMCG/FLS continued to fall. In 2024, according to Circana, the decline reached 0.9% across all channels (e-commerce, hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores and discount stores), following a decline of 3.1% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2022. Taking 2021 as a base of 100, the decline reached 8.1% in volume over 3 years. In terms of value, the average basket fell by 2% in a year. “With prices 21% higher than in 2021 on average in supermarkets, French consumers remain vigilant about the amount they spend on their daily shopping”, said a Circana Spokesperson.

Under pressure from soaring food prices,…

Morgane Monteiro, Aymeric Marolleau