Mercadona | Spanish ailes | Why a low-price retailer is thriving (The Economist)
June 10, 2011 
Marina 
Mercadona
Spanish aisles
Why a low-price retailer is thriving
Jun 2nd 2011 | MADRID | from the print edition
FEW domestic firms are prospering in crisis-racked Spain, but Mercadona is. Spain’s largest supermarket (by sales) has enjoyed double-digit growth for most of the past decade. When Juan Roig, the chairman, took over in 1981, Mercadona had only eight shops, all in Valencia. Today it has 1,310 and annual sales of €16.5 billion ($23.8 billion). Spain’s economic troubles seem to have made it stronger. Profits dipped in 2009, but surged again by 47% in 2010 after some forceful cost-cutting.
