Little by little, with your own funds, without leverage and with a careful study of the locations. But without pause. This is how he runs the Plusfresc supermarket chain, the brand owned by Supsa Sumpermercats Pujol, its growth beyond Lleida.
The distribution company has set foot outside its founding city, where it remains the market leader with a share of 21.6%, six points behind its immediate competitor, according to the latest available data. A necessary expansion, they consider, given the very high competition that exists in the sector today.
Plusfresc, created in 1929 by Rafael Pujol Sala, has 21 stores of different formats in the city of Lleida and 65 in the province, plus another 20 throughout the Ponent Strip, Barcelona and Tarragona. But competitors have entered its main market with force. In recent months, one of the chains that is stepping on the accelerator the most in Catalonia has opened eleven establishments in Lleida, and brands looking for the same customer target are establishing themselves there.
You have to go outside for the business to continue advancing. "Lleida continues to be our priority, but we want to grow in the rest of Catalonia, especially in Barcelona," says Francisco González, general director of Plusfresc.
The company has thus drawn up a three-year strategic plan (2022-2024) that foresees an investment of fifteen million euros to open nine stores in this period and renovate establishments. "We have met the goal of the first year, with three important stores, full format and fresh products in Reus, on Muntaner street in Barcelona and also in Lleida," explains González.
They want to add another two supermarkets in Barcelona between this year and next, which would reach nine stores in the Catalan capital. The task, however, is being difficult. Hard discount chains (they sell mostly their own brand products at low prices) have changed their strategy and are beginning to enter the center of cities. They no longer seek to locate only on the outskirts of municipalities or on the periphery of urban centers.
The customer wants to have the store close by, and large distribution companies bid aggressively for the best located and appropriately sized stores. Also, they are not very abundant. As a result, the price of commercial rentals changes and goes up overnight. "In Barcelona we are looking for premises between 800 and 1,000 square meters, and we see that they are becoming very expensive," says the general director of Plusfresc. This situation has led them to broaden their focus and consider entering the Barcelona metropolitan area for the first time, in towns such as Sant Cugat del Vallès, Sant Joan Despí or certain areas of Sabadell or Terrassa. "For us, the location is essential, we cannot go wrong because we finance our expansion with our own resources," continues González.
The chain, already in the hands of the third family generation, is "fully profitable" and has aroused the interest of investors. "It is not for sale," says his general manager emphatically in this regard. In 2021, the company billed 184.5 million euros (not counting VAT), 8.9% more than in 2019 -in 2020, sales amounted to 195.5 million, but the business was marked by the pandemic and a greater volume of consumption at home that has already normalized. In the absence of auditing the accounts for 2022, they also hope to increase revenue compared to the previous year, thus around 190 million euros.
The business model, underlines González, is still intact. "We are committed to quality, first-class fresh products, good customer service and digitization." Plusfresc is among the top supermarkets in terms of overall customer satisfaction in the latest OCU ranking. Also among the highest priced. "Our differential element -concludes González- is the high quality of the frescoes and the variety of references".
