Market share of leading grocery retailers in Italy 2024

Conad was the second leading food retailer in Italy in 2024, with a 15 percent of market share, just under Selex Gruppo Commerciale, which had a share of 15.4 percent. Among the top ten retailers with the highest market share were also leading supermarket chains such as Coop Italia, Esselunga, Eurospin, and Lidl.

Conad, always in the top two of leading supermarkets

The Conad cooperative started in 1962 in Bologna, and since then, it has become one of the leading supermarkets. While previously featuring in the ranking, thanks to the purchase of Auchan in late 2019 Conad so much as topped the list of the market share of food retailers in 2020 and kept the first place for the following three years. As of October 2024, it ranked second under the Selex group, with a difference of only 0.4 percent of market share. 

In 2023, Conad's revenue increased to 20 billion euros, the highest figure in the last five years. Besides, in the same year, the number of employees of Conad also grew by over 3,000 compared to the previous year, reaching close to 78,000 employees.

Coop, another supermarket cooperative at the top

The retail food cooperative movement emerged in the 19th century and consolidated in the post-war years in Italy. The above-mentioned Conad is not the only cooperative that is still ranking high among leading supermarkets: Coop is another very successful cooperative-based supermarket. This is despite the fact that the cooperative saw its sales decrease in recent years, although its revenues had increased again as of 2023 at about 1.1 billion euros, the highest value in the past 13 years.