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METRO GROUP : ANNUAL REPORT 2011 : STRATEGy
→ sTRaTeGIC posITIonInG oF MeTRo GRoUp : Real
Metro Cash & Carry continues to focus its expansion on the
growth regions of eastern europe and asia.
Real 422
a comprehensive range of food including a large share of
high-quality fresh items, a broad assortment of nonfood
products and an attractive price-performance ratio: these
are the strengths of our Real sales division. Real is among
Germany’s leading hypermarket operators. It also has stores
in poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The 426 hypermarkets
have up to 15,000 square metres of selling space. In
these stores, customers find all the products that cover their
daily needs under a single roof – just as the advertising
slogan says: “one store, you won’t need more!”.
Real generates three-fourths of its sales with food items. The
centrepieces of its product range are fresh foods, including
fruit, vegetables, meat, sausage, fish and cheese. Real also
offers a wide range of nonfood items, including electronic
devices, household products and textiles. Customers can find
up to 80,000 different items in every Real hypermarket. To
increase profitability over the long term, Real has been
pressing forward with its realignment since 2008. against
this backdrop, it continued to adjust its costs and structures,
optimise its sales network and further sharpen the profile of
the Real brand in 2011.
gaining an edge on competitors
one of Real’s key long-term success factors is its high level of
customer orientation. This involves the selection of products,
as well as quality and freshness, prices, product displays and
services. Because customers place a high priority on the
product groups of meat, fish, sausage and cheese, the sales
division is systematically expanding its fresh-food expertise.
Real’s goal is to establish the best image in Germany. a
number of awards presented to the sales division during the
reporting year testify to its success. In June 2011, the trade
publication lebensmittel Zeitung awarded Real the salescup
in the category in-store promotion for its bakery concept, calling
the hypermarket in Wiesbaden a pioneer in Germany’s
food retail business. also in June 2011, the store located in
the Rheinpark-Center in neuss won the so-called Cool-Cup
for Germany’s best refrigerated foods section, an award
that was presented by the trade publication Rundschau für den
lebensmittelhandel. The hypermarket in Karlsruhe-Durlach
was named “fish counter of the year 2011”, an award that is
handed out each year by the trade publication lebensmittel
praxis. Finally, the more than 70,000 readers of the magazine
“Meine Familie & ich” nominated the Real store in passau as
one of Germany’s ten best hypermarkets.
In addition, the results of the customer barometer 2011 demonstrate
that Real continued to improve in key aspects such as
friendliness, competence and staff availability. The customer
barometer is a telephone survey of about 34,000 German consumers
which Real conducts once a year, most recently in
January and February 2011. The survey questions address
service aspects that are very important to Real, including the
friendliness and competence of its staff, waiting times at
checkouts, quality, cleanliness and product availability. These
features provide the basis for the calculation of a performance
index. In addition, Real has used additional indexes to measure
the trust and loyalty of its customers since 2010.
Own-brand products strengthened again
With the three own brands “real,- QUalITY”, “real,- BIo”
and “real,- seleCTIon”, the sales division offers its customers
an alternative to traditional brand products priced in
the medium to upper ranges that is both inexpensive and of
equal quality. With “Tip”, Real also offers one of Germany’s
most well-known private labels in the budget price segment.
In 2011, Real offered about 4,000 own-brand products
in its assortment – about one-third more than in the previous
year. The products that Real sells under its own name
help to sharpen the brand’s profile. In addition, Real further
increases its gross earnings because the margins for ownbrand
products are better than they are with traditional
brand products. With a broad selection of own-brand products,
complemented by many items made by well-known
companies, Real optimally meets the diverse needs of
its customers.
Upgrading of stores moves forward
→ p. 049
To make its hypermarkets more attractive to customers, Real
is systematically modernising its stores as part of the sales
division’s new strategic focus on Germany. among the steps
being taken as part of this effort, the sales division is integrating
concept modules into its stores. These are product
groups that are showcased together in a uniform manner. The