"After two challenging years of the pandemic, the 2022 financial year was characterised by the effects of the war in Ukraine: economic uncertainty, massive cost increases - our additional costs for energy alone amounted to around 70 million euros - and high inflation. In this difficult environment, we consistently and reliably stayed on course for our customers in all business units. And this was honoured," said REWE International AG Management Board members Marcel Haraszti and Christoph Matschke. The food retail business segment, with our BILLA, PENNY and ADEG sales lines, recorded a 4.6 per cent increase in turnover. The BIPA specialist drugstores grew by 7.5 per cent. REWE Austria Travel and Tourism recorded an increase in turnover of 175.8 per cent in 2022, primarily due to the strong recovery of the travel market after coronavirus. In Austria, we invested 285 million euros in 2022 and the number of employees rose by 1,280 to 46,556, including around 2,300 trainees, 100 more than in 2021.

"We have a clearly defined goal: to become No. 1 with customers with BILLA and BILLA PLUS. To provide our customers with the right personalised products - regardless of their income. This is our top priority in "normal" times, and even more so in difficult economic times. In 2022, we therefore invested in stabilising sales prices for our customers across the entire product range, sharpened our promotional and discount programme once again to meet current customer needs and expanded the number of products in our entry-level price brand 'clever' by a further 12% to more than 730 products. As a result, our product range inflation in 2022 was 8.5 per cent for the year as a whole, below the food CPI of 10.7 per cent," explained Marcel Haraszti.

At the same time, however, organic, regional and, above all, the expansion of the "Fair zum Tier" fresh meat range with higher animal welfare standards continued to be promoted. "And with our plant-based offensive in the product range, BILLA Pflanzilla, Austria's first vegan supermarket, and the first three BILLA retailers, we have set strong accents in the market for our customers," emphasised Haraszti. Despite the difficult conditions, the optimisation of the store network was also consistently continued, "with a full focus on the right store at the right location and a modern shopping experience for our customers. We also pay particular attention to achieving the best possible ecological effects for the surrounding neighbourhoods (residential areas) and communities when renovating and building new stores." This ranges from optimised space and resource requirements, the highest possible energy efficiency and ecological construction methods to the integration of the respective store into sustainable mobility concepts.

BILLA increased its revenue by 2.9 per cent in 2022, employed 31,888 people (+690 compared to 2021) and increased the number of stores by six to 1,276.

PENNY Austria, which launched the new PENNYversum store concept in the 4th quarter of 2022, achieved an increase in turnover of 9.2 per cent in 2022. In the highly competitive Austrian discount store market, the company performed better than the industry average.

The cooperation with OMV and the co-branding VIVA BILLA was launched in 2022, and 195 petrol station shops will be supplied in the final expansion phase. There are also partnerships with Shell (BILLA Unterwegs), BP (BILLA Now) and JET (BILLA stop n' shop). A total of over 600 petrol stations are currently supplied. The independent ADEG retailers were able to generate a plus of 3.4 per cent including the wholesale business.

BIPA recorded further sales growth in 2022 with an increase of 7.5 per cent. "The strategic focus on even more sustainability in the product range, as well as the extensive soft health offering, have been very well received by our customers," says Haraszti.

Travel and Tourism recorded strong growth again in 2022 after two years of pandemic: thanks in particular to a summer season that outperformed 2019 and the addition of three Aldiana Clubs to the business during the year, Travel and Tourism recorded an increase in sales of 175.8 per cent.

"Our labour market has already changed significantly during the coronavirus pandemic, and this has intensified in 2022. We are currently looking for employees and apprentices and currently have 3,000 vacancies," says Christoph Matschke. REWE Austria is meeting this challenge with a whole range of measures: recruiting has been made even more effective. Potential employees are being approached in an even more target group-oriented manner, including via an increasing number of channels, and application options and processes are being further digitalised, made more efficient and simpler and accelerated. "We are also driving forward the diversification of our offerings: from flexible working time models, 24 apprenticeships, apprenticeships with a school-leaving certificate, attractive specialist career paths, remote work, home office options and our own programmes for those interested in 50 plus, career changers and those returning to work." Overall, the number of employees rose by 1,280 to 46,556 in 2022, "but we would have liked to have taken on even more," says Matschke, "especially in the areas of sales and logistics at the moment."

A dedicated IT recruiting task force was set up to deal with the prevailing "war for talent" on the IT market. This enabled around 100 additional IT experts to be recruited in 2022. "We are convinced that modern IT is a decisive factor for long-term success and are investing 200 million euros in a multi-year IT transformation process in our countries over the next few years," explains Matschke.
The aim is to meet increasingly individual customer requirements even better, and processes are being optimised behind the scenes in order to free up employees in all areas for important tasks such as customer support and advice. Matschke cites further examples of how efficiency can be increased: "This also includes reorganising our core components such as the merchandise management system in a new and future-oriented way over the next few years, leveraging synergies through Group-wide solutions and, of course, developing solutions ourselves."

"We will continue to consistently and reliably stay on course for our customers in all business units in 2023," announced Marcel Haraszti. To this end, the €460 million investment offensive in customer satisfaction, modernisation, digitalisation and greening will continue. "We are continuing to focus on animal welfare and will be able to convert all fresh meat service counters in Austria to animal welfare from Ja! Natürlich and Fair zum Tier and are also expanding the delicatessen with Fair zum Tier products," says Haraszti. We are also continuing to systematically expand our plant-based range, and this year alone we have already added 170 new plant-based products to our 2,500-strong range. Another highlight this year will be the store handovers to 12 BILLA retailers, in addition to the three existing stores managed under the new partnership model.