Mercadona (, ) is a Spanish supermarket chain, with 1,618 stores across Spain and 61 in Portugal (as of 04/2025). The company was founded by Francisco Roig Ballester and his wife, Trinidad Alfonso Mocholi in 1977. Mercadona began as a small butcher's shop in Tavernes Blanques, a village in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. Juan Roig assumed the role of CEO in 1981, and the company has since expanded nationwide. In the 1990s, Juan Roig oversaw a series of changes across the whole company and revealed the new façade of Mercadona as a result of the competitive business landscape, which includes competitors such as

Carrefour Carrefour Group, S.A. (, ), is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, Essonne, Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 ...

and the co-operative

Eroski Eroski is a Spanish supermarket chain headquartered in Elorrio, Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. It is run as a worker-consumer hybrid co-operative within the Mondragón Corporation group, with nearly 1,000 outlets spread a ...

History

Since its initial start as a butchers shop in 1977, Mercadona expanded to eight stores in 1981, and 1,148 stores by October 2013. The chain has had an online shop since 2001, which accounted for one percent of total sales in 2010. Today it accounts for 13.5% of Spain's total food retail space and was able to achieve over €508 million in profit for the 2012 fiscal year. CEO Juan Roig plans to bring Mercadona to Italy or France but with potential modifications in his Spanish model of business to compete in the new markets. He was quoted in the Economist saying, "We must learn everything from everyone". The Mercadona Management Committee approved in 2016, the start of the expansion in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, the first supermarket in Vila Nova de Gaia opened their doors in July 2019.

Ownership

Juan Roig is the CEO and major shareholder (50%), his wife Hortensia Herrero owns 30%, and his brother Fernando Roig owns 9%. There is a third partner, Rafael Gómez Gómez, who holds 7% of Mercadona.

Business model

Mercadona dedicates much of its resources to eliminating unnecessary costs in its packaging. According to ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'', the chain has saved €2.2 billion by reducing packaging materials. Mercadona does not spend capital resources on advertising or marketing campaigns, which is another means of cutting costs. Instead relies on their

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, and

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accounts to share pictures and videos of products and company practices.

Modern changes

Mercadona was the first Spanish company to use

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly ref ...

s in its stores. The system has since permitted greater monitoring of product movement in addition to an optimizing of checkout times. Mercadona also has an automated distribution center on the outskirts of Madrid, where computer monitors keep track of orders while manual labour is performed by robotic arms.

Revenue

References

External links

* {{Authority control Retail companies established in 1977 Companies based in the Valencian Community Supermarkets of Spain Spanish brands 1977 establishments in Spain Supermarkets of Portugal Food retailers Companies based in Valencia 1977 establishments Family-owned companies