Mercadona increased its profit by 5.5% in 2022, to 718 million euros. The leading supermarket chain in terms of market share in Spain achieved record sales of 31,041 million euros (up 11%) thanks to inflation as volume barely increased by 1%. The President announced this on Tuesday. Juan Roigwho figured out how the network had raised a “stupid price” to avoid a network disaster.

The firm already has 99,000 workers between Spain and Portugal. Roig clarified that he received 88 million dividends on a salary of 11 million, on which he pays 54% personal income tax.

In addition, the company notes a greater influx of customers to its establishments as a result of inflation. “People come more times to buy“, – he noted, – with an average ticket of 28 euros.

Mercadona’s president said they were trying to “act like a containment dam” against rising costs. “We had such tension with suppliers as never before in our lives. We fought a lot,” Roig said. Cost growth was 12%, while the customer contributed 10%.

For his part, he defended himself against attacks coming from the violet part of the executive branch. “Privileges are an important and necessary thing. The more you have, the better: the more taxes you pay, the more salaries you can pay, the more reforms you can carry out and the more dividends you can distribute among shareholders who have invested money to make a profit, ”he stressed. to later verify that “the tax contribution was historical”.

By 2023, according to Roig, the priority is to reduce the cost of the shopping cart of their customers. In addition, he plans to invest $1,000 million and increase his workforce by another 1,000 people. In terms of expansion plans, the company plans to open 58 stores in Spain and 10 in Portugal.

The company controls 25.7% of the Spanish market, up seven tenths from the previous year. According to the latest data from the consulting company Kantar, it follows at a decent distance. Carrefour, which is 9.7%. From my side, lidl its market share increased by half a point to 5.8%, with Dia in fourth place with 4.6%.