Introducing Mercadona

Janina and I did some research on Mercadona and its logistics system. In total we have prepared 4 posts. This is the first one to introduce Mercadona.

Mercadona is a Spanish family-owned supermarket company whose objective is to fully satisfy the grocery, home cleaning, hygiene and pet products’ needs of its "Bosses". To this end the company has 1,264 local stores

• averaging between 1,300 and 1,500 square meters of retail space,


• representing a market share of 12.8% of the total food store retail space in Spain and


• contributing to the business dynamics of the areas in which they are located.


• Every one of these supermarkets has an ample and ef?cient selection that includes up to 8,000 different items located within easy reach of the over 4.3 million households that place their trust in the company every year.

See: http://descargas.mercadona.com/memorias2009/ING/Report09.pdf

Jochen has found the "canción de Mercadona", which we can always hear when we go shopping at Mercadona (and which we still sing 3 hours after shopping):





SPB = Siempre precios bajos

Mercadona has a special business model that is called siempre precios bajos, it means always low price in English. It is a formula that allows Mercadona's customers ("The Bosses") to buy products of the highest quality at the lowest prices on the market. That strategy matches what has always been the company’s motto for over 16 years: "Quality doesn’t have to be more expensive".


In total Mercadona works with more than 2,000 trade suppliers and service providers, over 100 of which are integrated suppliers, manufacturers of th Hacendado, Bosque Verde, Deliplus and Compy brands. Mercadona has long-term mutual cooperation and commitment relationship regulated by way of a Sound Business Practices Framework Agreement. This results in "contracts for life" and all of them are committed to the total customer satisfaction philosophy that is so important to Mercadona and which applies to both quality services and products.



Total Quality

Since 1993, Mercadona’s management model has been one based on Total Quality. Through this method Mercadona satis?es the company’s ?ve components with equal dedication: ‘The Boss’, The Employee, The Supplier, Society and Capital.

Some Key Figures of the five components



'THE BOSS'

• Geographical presence: 46 provinces, 15 Autonomous Communities, 4.3 million households trust Mercadona daily.


• Local supermarkets: 54 more stores than in 2008, 74 openings, 20 closures.


• Market share: 12.8% market share, 12,663,000 m2 total shopping surface area of organized distribution in Spain.

THE EMPLOYEE

• Stable employment: 62,000 workers, all with permanent contracts.


• 67% female employees.


• 500 new permanent positions created.


• Training: 25 training courses. 1.4 million hours. 38 million Euros investment. 609 euros average investment in training per person.

THE SUPPLIER

• 500 million Euros invested by integrated suppliers to distribute their production activities throughout Spain.


• More than 1,100 jobs created by the integrated suppliers.


• 14,200 million Euros in purchases from national suppliers, both commercial and service, representing over 90% of the company’s purchases. Equivalent to over 1.4% of the Spanish GDP.


• Average payment time to suppliers: 65.


• 8 active logistics blocks.
  4 logistics blocks in planning stage/under construction: Villadangos del Páramo (León), Guadix (Granada), Pla-Za (Zaragoza) and Abrera (Barcelona).

SOCIETY

• 
  Social productivity: Commitment to the efficient use of natural resources, contributing to the development of the areas where the company operates.


• Joint generation of wealth and employment by Mercadona & integrated suppliers.


• Environmental investment: 23 million euros.



CAPITAL

Check out more key facts on http://www.mercadona.es/corp/ing-html/memoria09.html