Globus

BY

HANS KRAAK

Kraak Media Productions

A Family Business Growing and Thriving Since 1828

Because, according to Matthias Bruch: “It’s all about our customers”

At Globus the customer is key, which is also translated into the private label products. Example is the poultry butchery for the Czech public, but also the making of own Pelmeni in Russia. Globus also provides different products for high and low incomes. The first for example can find Azerbaijani tomatoes in the grocery isles. “As my father said, the work we do, is all about the satisfaction of our customers”, states Matthias Bruch, managing director of the Globus Holding.

It seems Czechs love poultry. They know this At Globus Group. In their supermarket in Cerný Most near Prague the company opened a special butchery for poultry. It paves the way for further development in the fresh segment, not only in the Globus markets in the Czech Republic, but also in Russia and home base country Germany. “The Czech Republic is a poultry country”, explaines Jochen Baab, responsible for the management of the Globus Hypermakets of the group. “Per capita Czechs consume almost 24 kilos of poultry meat per year. That’s almost ten kilos more than in Germany.” Reason enough for Globus to open a special poultry butchery in 2020. “We still consider the Globus butcher's shops as a growth market and see the new poultry butchery as a promise for further development.”

But it’s not only in the Czech Republic, in all markets where the Globus Group is present, fresh, healthy and sustainable food gets more attention from their customers. According to the latest annual sales report over the period July 1th 2020 to June 30th 2021, presented in October by the Globus board, corona worked as a catalyst for this trend.

JOCHEN BAAB

“We record strong growth in the areas of organic and special nutrition, in regional products and in fresh food, especially fruit and vegetables”, confirms Baab. “We have fresh in-house production on our sites where we work with a large number of local suppliers.”

To emphasize the importance of innovative and sustainable products in 2020 Globus also introduced the new private label ‘Einfach Wertvoll’ or ‘Simply valuable’. It was immediately popular with their customers. The range of the Einfach Wertvoll department goes from organic, gluten, lactose and fructose free to vegetarian and vegan foods. The new product line already contributes to the company’s growth. The current assortment of Globus supermarkets contains around 4.200 vegan foods, 4.500 certified organic products of which 450 are Demeter certified which is a standard for bio dynamic foods.

Russia, digital innovation driver

Despite the corona pandemic, Globus’s sales for the 2020/2021 financial year rose slightly by 2.4 percent to 7.76 billion euros and recorded a stable increase in operating profit of 6.1 percent (EBIT 301.3 million euros) compared to the previous year. One of the drivers of this growth was the rapid expansion of the online business and significant investments into digital transformation. “Especially in Russia, where the pandemic had a deep impact on purchasing power and buying behavior, new analog and digital developments contributed to a stronger market position”, states Volker Schaar, spokesman for Globus Russia management.

Globus saw a change in the Shopping habits during the pandemic: customers were coming less often to the shops, but when they came they bought more. And they bought increasingly online. All 18 Russian locations Globus offer online services like Click & Collect. Eight supermarkets developed their own online shops. The number of orders within a year rose from an average of 26,000 to 57,000 orders per month. E-commerce sales doubled itself - from 119 to 281 million rubles per month.

In the Czech Republic and in Germany, lockdowns, shop and restaurant closings affected the turnover. "The corona pandemic has not thrown us off track, but has shown that we can use the challenges that lie ahead of us to develop significantly,” says Matthias Bruch, managing director of the Globus Holding. "As a company, we are on the move with a lot of tailwind and are experiencing great development."

MATTHIAS BRUCH

THOMAS BRUCH

Matthias Bruch, who took over the general management of the Globus Holding from his father Thomas in june 2020, is descendant of Franz Bruch – his greatgreat-great-grandfather - who founded the Globus as a grocery store in 1828. The main offices are now based in St. Wendel in the German Saarland. In 190 years Globus developed to the present Globus Group which unites Globus SB-Warenhaus Deutschland, Globus specialist stores (hard ware/DIY), Globus Russia and Globus Czech Republic. At present around 46,000 people work in the Globus Group, of which around 19,400 in German hypermarkets and around 9,550 in specialist stores. In Russia and Czech Republic Globus employs 17,000.

Real Shops

The growth story of Globus is set to continue. At the end of 2020, the company received approval from the competition authorities to take over 16 German Real stores. The Globus board spoke of this as the “chance of the century” in the past financial year. It means the company, including its own location developments, will grow by more than a third in the coming years. The investments of the Globus Group in the past financial year are correspondingly high: they invested 336.6 million euros in the development of new locations such as the construction of the hypermarkets in Eschborn and Neunkirchen, the conversion of the former real locations in Braunschweig, Krefeld and Essen, and the modernization of several specialist store locations. "We are experiencing a sustained, very nice economic development, which the extended closings of our catering areas in the spring could not slow down", explains Jochen Baab. "Proof that many developments, such as the introduction of Payback and joining the RTG (Retail Trade Group) purchasing group, which we initiated last year, are already bearing fruit."

Though steadily growing bigger and bigger, Globus strives to maintain its origin as a family business (see frame^). Not only with the presence of Matthias Bruch as managing director, but also by becoming one of Germany’s best rated supermarket by customers on many points. The human touch of the employees causes German customers to choose the company for many years now as the most popular hypermarket, including 2021. The rating is done by the German Customer monitor for the most popular grocer in Germany. Globus hardware stores also end up high in the consumer ranking. Customers like the specialist advice, kindness, attention and availability of the staff. Last Year, in order to involve customers in the Globus family, the company adapted to the customer loyalty program Payback, which gives consumers the possibility to collect points (for money) they can spend at diverse shops. The Payback program comes next to the existing Mein Globus loyalty card. Both cards can be combined and give, for example, a reduction in the Globus petrol stations.

photo credit: Globus SB-Warenhaus Holding GmbH & Co