Mercadona

While Mercadona was dedicated to conquering all of Spain, a supermarket has taken over its territory at home: Consum

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For years now, talking about supermarkets in Spain means talking about Mercadona. And it is logical. The Valencian chain has been gradually expanding its share until it has monopolized almost 30% of the sector at the end of 2025 and its commitment to service ‘Ready to eat’ is giving wings to a new business concept in Spain: the merchants. However, despite that resounding dominion of the retailJuan Roig’s company has found a surprise in the Valencian Community, the region where it was born. late 70’s: Consum has just advanced it in a key business parameter. The question is… What does that mean? What has happened? Basically, that the specialized portal infoRETAIL has published a report on the food distribution sector that, for the first time in a long time, relegates Mercadona to second place. The study, based on Retail Data, concludes that the Juan Roig chain has lost its dominant role in the Valencian Community in one of the key business parameters: square meters of sales area. If we look at that aspect, at the end of the first quarter Consum was better positioned. What does the data say? They show that right now Consum dominates the Valencian sales areas with 25.9% of the space. Translated into meters, that is equivalent to 436,835 m2 in the region which are spread across 533 locations. The firm directed by Antonio Rodríguez Lázaro also stands out in this aspect: there is no other chain in the region with more stores. Mercadona occupies second place with 431,688 m2 and 262 stores, which gives it a share of 25.6%. Is it an important indicator? Yes, because it shows us how extended the chain’s sales network is, a key asset when competing with its rivals. However, a crucial detail must be taken into account: the surface area quota is not the same as the value quota. The first is basically measured in square meters with merchandise displayed. The second in invoiced euros. infoRETAIL does not provide updated data on the latest indicator (value quota), but in spring Expansion echoed from a study by Worlpanel by Numerator that reflects that Roig’s chain clearly dominates on that front. Your share of business in the Levant was 33.6%above that reached in other regions of Spain and that registered by Consum, which held 16.8%. Has it grown that much? If we talk about surface, the answer is ‘yes’. In 2025 Consum premiered 18 new supermarketsof which seven were distributed throughout the Valencian Community, and by 2026 it has been marked a similar goal: open 18 new establishments, a good part of which will be distributed throughout towns in the region (Orihuela, Cox, Sagunto, Ontinyent, Torrevieja and València). This explains why Consum’s share of sales area in the Valencian Community has increased by close to 0.2% in a matter of one year. During the same period, Mercadona’s share decreased by 0.1%. In general, Mercadona said goodbye to 2025 with fewer stores in its sales network than in 2024. This drop did not affect its turnover, which grew 8%up to 41.8 billion. And the rest of the chains? The exchange of positions between Mercadona and Consum is not the only change that the sector has experienced in the Valencian Community. The results of Retail Data show that Lidl has managed to establish itself in the Valencian “TOP 5” with 101,777 m2 spread across 83 establishments. The German firm thus surpasses Masymas, which has 100,519 m2 in 180 stores. The photo is completed with Aldi, which totals 89,154 m2 in 78 stores. The Valencian market is not only important for its economic potential, it is also important on a symbolic level. After all, it is the cradle of three large chains in competition: Mercadona, Masymas and Consum, which started in 1975 in Alaquàs and closed 2025 with a turnover of 5,163 million euros, 9.7% more than the previous year. In its annual balance there was already an increase in surface area of ​​5.6%. Images | Wikipedia 1, 2 and 3 In Xataka | Bernardo Rodilla, retail expert: “The ‘Ready to eat’ is gaining weight, in the end we want to spend as little time as possible cooking”

A company from Valencia manufactures Mercadona mochis. They have grown to 165 million euros

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Who is the company behind Mercadona’s addictive dochis? From battle ice cream to vegan mochis and plants in Cheste, if you have heard of Estiu you will have heard of a success story to be very proud of. Helados Estiu went from being the typical discreet cheap ice cream factory to a central player in the most powerful supermarket in Spain. “Estiu” is summer and in the summer was when they moved, one from 1997, to the highway Manises-Ribarroja km 11.1. From there they sell dozens of liters of ice cream every year and now they are destroying that Trojan horse that is “dochis”, their own version of mochis with crushed cookies. Yes, I have two boxes in the freezer. The white label has known how to bet on the Japanese dessert and has been eaten, in industrial volumeto other legendary companies in the sector such as Frigo or La Lechera. Manufacturing for the leader. Helados Estiu was born in 1983 with a clear idea of ​​producing battle ice creams, a summer campaign and always low prices. During the first decades it worked with various partners, national and European, without completely taking off. It is in 2013 when the large injection of capital begins to expand lines and improve structures: warehouses are expanded, water efficiency is improved, formats are diversified and logistics automation is implemented with Pallet Shuttle. Not for nothing was the ‘mini chocolate cookie’ a hit that ate Maxibon’s toast. But the turning point came in 2002, when they closed their supply agreement with Mercadona and entered the circuit of “screw supplier” by Hacendado. From that turning point today come things as different as chocolates, sandwiches, frozen cakes and the coconut and mango mochis that serve as a bridge between Japan and the supermarket aisle. Can a single manufacturer really shape what a country eats? It seems so. And they are addictive. Or that’s how their numbers explain it. In 2019 it had a turnover of around 61 million euros and sold 27.7 million liters of ice cream. In 2023 it was already at 138 million euros (+30% over 2022), 44 million liters and a average staff of 473 people51% more than the previous year. In 2024 it will reach around 150 million in turnover, 45 million liters and 8.8 million in profit. In 2025 it will reach 165 million, with more than 46 million liters sold and exceeding the 9 million in net profits. The white label, the cat in the water. In the Spanish ice cream market, white label rules. In 2024, Kantar estimated the value share of private labels in ice cream at 68.5%, compared to names that previously seemed untouchable such as Frigo, La Lechera or Häagen-Dazs. In mass consumption, private label has gone from representing 20% ​​of the value in 2003 to touch 44% in 2024and experts see room for it to approach 70% in many categories. And Mercadona is the epicenter of this shift, with a food distribution share that represents a third of the Spanish market, and with those Hacendado ice creams with a wide and very high rotation of styles and flavors. And its price has cost it: the plant in Cheste cost more than 31 million euros, with specific lines for mochis and vegan ice creams, and another 26 million investment is expected in three years. In exchange, of the 65 types of ice cream that Mercadona sells in Madrid, 22 are manufactured by this Valencian company. 34% of the ice cream catalog of the giant Juan Roig. Mochi is the passport. It is true that for the average consumer, Estiu does not exist. What you see is a black cream-flavored chocolate, the mini-sandwich (so you don’t feel so guilty consuming twice as many calories as the standard format) or the coconut mochi at 2.90 euros for a box of six. Estiu entered this format eleven years ago, replicating the Japanese sweet with rice dough and filled with coconut, mango or pistachio ice cream under the Hacendado brand. The invention worked so well that they ended up exporting it: Wao Mochi is the own brand that, in 2019, began selling in Holland, Ireland, Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Germany and Armenia. At first it was almost an experiment, a small fraction of the business. Vawaii, its vegan ice cream brand, occupies the plant-based niche and today more than 26,000 boxes of frozen mochis are sold daily in its three main flavors, and with that surprise called Dochi Cheesecake. Although the favorite of many is still the banoffee: banana, the crunchy cookie and the dulce de leche filling. The best of the flash remains. Growing by selling cheap, this has been its key. None of this would make sense without a very aggressive pricing policy. All their ice creams are systematically below the benchmarks of famous manufacturers, between 2 and 4 euros for complete boxes of 6 products. A frozen hook, a treat for the after-dinner meal that has built a small empire and aims to continue growing. Ironically, mochis travel from hot Spain to Finland. Images | Summer Ice CreamFlickr (Nina Ding) In Xataka | Fernando Sáenz, one of the best ice cream makers in the world, puts the dots over the i’s: “Mercadona has changed the palate of the Spanish people” In Xataka | Italy has taken the “gourmetization” of ice cream to the extreme with a €95 cone. Now the country debates whether that is “idiots”

“Mercadona no longer competes only with Carrefour, it does so with the restaurant on the corner and McDonald’s”

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If you go to the RAE website and look for the definition of “supermarket” You will see that its academics describe it basically as a store where one goes to fill their basket with food, drinks, cleaning products and other belongings. Then he goes to the checkout, pays what is due and goes home. The same thing that the experience accumulated after years and years of making the purchase tells us. The problem is that both the RAE and our experience are beginning to stay out of date. The supers they are no longer happy with being our food providers. Now they want to be something more: our main reference in food. And that means stopping competing only with each other to do so with hoteliers and even multinational restaurant chains. like McDonald’s or Burger King. Express it clearly Bernardo RodillaRetail Business Director at Wordlpanel by Numerator: “Mercadona no longer competes only with Carrefour, it is also competing with the restaurant on the corner and McDonald’s. In the end everyone fights for the same need and it’s getting closer.” A share of almost 20% Rodilla’s reflection is interesting for several reasons. First, for his knowledge of the sector. Second, because Worldpanel is one of the firms that produces the most statistics on food and retail market shares. Not long ago, in fact, he published a report that slipped a key idea: Mercadona is no longer just the chain with higher market share in its sector, far surpassing rivals such as Carrefour or Lidl, it has also become a heavyweight in global food. Translated into figures, this means hoarding a share of the value of almost 20% in food and beverage consumption. What does that mean? That Mercadona sells as much (or more) food as traditional hospitalityat least in terms of value. According to the Worldpanel reportbars, cafes and terraces accounted for around 11.2% share and independent restaurants 8.6%. However, Mercadona takes 19.7%, quite a distance from others retailssuch as Carrefour (6%) and Lidl (5.1%). The change in the sector ‘photo’ is so clear that Rodilla recognizes that it is forcing analysts to rethink their way of studying the sector. “We propose that we increasingly have to look at market shares in a global total of food. We can no longer differentiate if it is food for eat at home or eat out or for restaurants,” he points out. Everything also indicates that the panorama will continue to change over time, as the prepared food sections of supermarkets continue to expand. Probably the clearest example is left ‘Ready to eat’the cooked food service launched in 2018 by the Juan Roig chain and which basically (as its name indicates) allows the customer to buy already prepared dishes at the supermarket that, in many cases, they can devour right there, without having to leave the store. Although it is less than a decade old, this line of business already has hundreds of millions and look from you to you to chains of fast food. “Everything that is ‘Ready to eat’ is a trend that, not only in Spainbut in many countries, it is having a journey. It gains weight and it makes sense because in the end we want to spend as little time as possible cooking,” reasons Rodilla. As for the future, and despite the fact that, as the Worldpanel expert recalls, when a trend takes hold it is common for others to emerge in the opposite direction, it is expected that services such as Mercadona’s will continue to expand. The phenomenon is not limited to the Valencian chain. There are many other companies, such as Carrefour, Alcampo or Masymaswho are exploring the business niche of prepared meals. In fact, they are beginning to be so popular that a new term has even been coined to designate those supermarkets with food counters and rooms where you can taste them: the ‘merchants’. In Barcelona the ‘traditional’ hoteliers have already started to denounce them so they consider a unfair competition that affects them directly. Its strategy is to offer cheap, appetizing, flexible and fast-consuming menus. They sell food, yes; but above all they sell time savings. The bet is working so well that there are those who believe, including Roig himselfthat supermarkets will end up making kitchens outdated spaces in the home. Why have a vitro if Mercadona or Carrefour already cooks for us? Rodilla has another question: if that happens… Exactly, what role will the supers come to play? He does not believe that we are heading towards the culinary dystopia predicted by Juan Roig, although he does not see it as unreasonable that in the future our way of relating to cooking at home will change. Instead of being just another household chore, cooking would become an activity “playful”. From Mercadona and super regional In any case, precooked foods and the success of ‘Ready to Eat’ are not the only trends that mark the food distribution sector. Internally, there are three other equally clear phenomena: Mercadona’s expansionwhich already has between 25 and 30% market value share, white label success and the endurance of the super regionals. For Rodilla it is a reflection of how our own way of buying and filling the refrigerator has changed. “Not only has Mercadona grown, but all organized distribution has grown in recent years. You see how we bought in 2000 and how we buy now and you see how the supermarket in general or the large supermarkets has grown. Between Mercadona and Lidl in the last 25 years, practically 25 share points have grown,” he points out. At the opposite pole is the branch of the sector that has lost ground: the “lifelong specialists”as fishmongersbutchers or fruit shops. “The Spanish market was very particular and there were many specialists. In recent years we have seen that it has been disappearing and that purchase has been transferred to organized distribution,” Rodilla explains. In the specific case of Mercadona, its ability to move from an autonomous model, … Read more

Fernando Sáenz, one of the best ice cream makers in the world, puts the dots over the i’s, “Mercadona has modified the palate of the Spanish people”

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A few days ago, Fernando Sáenz, one of the best ice cream makers in Spain (and, quite possibly, the world) gave an interview that left everyone confused. It’s not just that Mercadona “has its clientele totally dedicated,” it’s that they have “modified the palate of the Spanish.” Coming from an ice cream maker famous for its strange gourmet flavors like ‘fig shade’, one might think this is a typical “elitist chef vs. super normie” outburst. And it is possible, yes; but what if it’s true? Can a single chain shape what a country eats? Who Fernando Saenz? An ice cream authority: the head behind sellaSera, in Logroño and one of the key suppliers of the best elite restaurants in the country (from Mugaritz to El Celler de Can Roca through Quique Dacosta or Eneko Atxa). Best Pastry Chef in Spain from the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, Best Sweet Space in Madrid Fusion and Prix ​​Chef Pâtissier 2025 of the International Academy of Gastronomy. In other words, not only is he someone who knows the world of ice cream deeply, he is someone who thinks about it deeply. Therefore, such a harsh statement is worth examining. Because Mercadona has a lot of power. After all, almost one euro out of every three spent in supermarkets she takes it. Not only that, between 2018 and 2023, the manufacturer brand references on their shelves fell 45%. Increasingly, Mercadona is judge and party in what is sold or not: its size allows it to do something that almost no competitor achieves and that is to convert each assortment decision into a change in habits on a national scale. And how does that change the “taste” of an entire country? It doesn’t just happen with ice cream, of course. But the sustained strategy of “short assortment and dominated by own brand” reduces the number of flavors, formats and recipes to which the regular buyer ends up being exposed. It’s not so much that ‘taste’ gets worse, as that the frame of reference becomes narrower and more homogeneous. In fact, some experts such as Howard Moskowitz talks about “hijacked palate” due to industrial dynamics. Can’t we do anything? We are trying to do it, in fact. In recent years the National Reformulation Plan has managed to reduce sugar, salt and saturated fat in most packaging categories, according to a study from the CEU San Pablo University; and Mercadona has reformulated its own products downwards. Ironically, Saénz puts his finger on the sore spot because one of the few categories where reformulation has not yet worked is ice cream. A palate at two speeds. The reduction in assortments is causing the industry to begin to concentrate on two levels: large stores and specialty stores. The “middle class” is dead and the problem may come in the long term: a generation raised on a narrow menu sets expectations that are difficult to move. Image | Fernando Saenz | DAP In Xataka | Spain’s favorite ice creams are from Mercadona and have no “brand”. And there is a Valencian company making gold with them

If Mercadona wants to continue growing, it needs to dominate the online channel. Now you have your first semi-automated warehouse

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Not everything is white label and pre-cooked food in Mercadona’s strategy. Although the Valencian company is transforming part of its stores in ‘merchants’spaces where customers can eat dishes already cooked in the supermarket, their commercial commitment also involves the opposite pole: attracting those families who choose to stay at home and make their purchases remotely. Only in 2025 the online channel reported 1.1 billion to the company, which explains why it has just released a new mega warehouse in Madrid with which he wants to revolutionize his distance sales. In fact, he calls it a “Semi-Automated Hive.” What has happened? What Mercadona just opened a warehouse in the La Atalayuela industrial estate, in Villa de Vallecas (Madrid), which aspires to mark a before and after in its online sales channel. The reason: although the Valencian chain already has six other similar warehouses, spread across Valencia, Barcelona, ​​Alicante, Seville and the Community of Madrid itself, where it manages another two in Getafe and Boadilla del Monte, none of them is comparable to the one in Vallecas. Why is it different? The other six “hives” (the name with which Mercadona refers to this type of warehouse) work with operators and machinery, but the one it has activated in La Atalayuela is the first semi-automated one in its network. That is, the new warehouse incorporates 70 robots that will be responsible for directly managing 2,700 non-perishable goods, which will in turn simplify the tasks that depend on the operators. “The worker no longer walks through aisles to locate the products, but rather the product arrives at the order preparation station,” clarify. Do we know anything else? Yes. The new warehouse does not only stand out for its operation, it also stands out for its size. Round the 32,000 square meterswhich makes it the largest “Hive” in the network managed by Mercadona. To build it, the company has invested 54 million euros and formed a staff of 700 people. Its objective is to be able to attend up to 5,000 orders per day, which would raise Mercadona’s total capacity in the Community of Madrid to 8,000 if the warehouses that already operate in Getafe and Boadilla del Monte are taken into account. The firm aims to cover 95% of the locations in the region this year. Why is it important? Because, beyond what it may mean for the service it provides in Madrid, the new warehouse also tells us about Mercadona’s strategy. The chain has been betting on its white label and the section ‘Ready to eat’which basically offers customers an assortment of already cooked dishes. The bet is going reasonably well: the latest data that has emerged shows that in 2025 the company will invoice in Spain 700 million of euros through this last route, a figure that rises to 3,000 million if the entire business of pre-cooked foods in the national and Portuguese markets is included. Although the online channel includes a section of “prepared dishes”the ‘Ready to eat’ section basically relies on face-to-face sales in stores. In fact, in some stores Mercadona even offers spaces with tables and chairs where customers can eat, just as if they were in a bar. The new Colmena aims at a different business niche: that of distance sales. And how are you doing in that business? In your latest annual report Mercadona revealed that in 2025 the “reinforcement” of its online purchasing model allowed it to increase turnover through that channel by 26%, surpassing the barrier of 1,000 million euros for the first time. To be more precise, the Valencian company was talking about a cash flow of 1,061 million euros thanks to both the activity of its “Hives” and the 218 physical stores that offer the service. In addition to opening warehouses, Mercadona has made two major improvements in this channel in recent years: it has enabled its website to make it accessible to customers with vision problems and it has incorporated Bizum as a payment method. Images | Mercadona In Xataka | In Spain, eating has become a procedure that must be quick and easy. And that is making gold for the supermarkets that prepare dishes

Who do you love more, bars or Mercadona? Hospitality is taking the battle over prepared food to a zero-sum game

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Since Spain believe made the “menu of the day” official 61 years agoin Manuel Fraga’s time, workers, travelers and families have gone to bars at midday basically looking for two things, in addition to food: time savings and good prices. That sacred triad turned the menu into the great success of the national hospitality industry (with forgiveness for the omelette). Now it plays against him. The same customers who have been eating in restaurants for generations have found an alternative that offers them food at better prices and with greater flexibility: supermarkets. The hoteliers, of course, they are not willing to give up and have taken out their best weapon: regulation. What has happened? The event was intended to review the data and needs of the sector, but it ended up leading to something else: a call to attention to chains such as Mercadona or Alcampo. Yesterday, during the General Assembly of Hospitality of Spain, the president of the group, José Luis Álvarez Almeida, post against a rival that until recently was off the radar of the country’s bars and restaurants: supermarkets. Without expressly mentioning them, the head of the employers’ association complained about the competition exerted by firms such as Mercadona, Carrefour, Bon Preu or Alcampo (to name a few), which have been betting on the sale of prepared dishes for some time and, in some cases, even include dining rooms in their premises so that customers can consume the food and drinks that they previously bought in the store right there. A model, Almeida insistswhich looks too similar to yours. “Unfair competition”. “Now we have gas stations, stores, hypermarkets or supermarkets that want to be bars. That is unfair competition,” argument the president of Hospitality of Spain during an event that was also attended by the Minister of Tourism, Jordi Hereu. “What we tell them is that, from an economic and competitive point of view, they can do what they want; but we all have to play on equal terms and be equal before the law.” your words have resonated with force in the sector, although it is not the first time that the expansion of the ready-to-eat dishes business within the supermarkets themselves leads to this question: Can it be considered unfair competition? He floated the same idea in December during an interview with SER Emilio Gallego, general secretary of Hospitality of Spain. “It is a controversial question. Either you are a supermarket or you have a space for a restaurant,” argument. “If you have a space where you buy food and eat it, you obviously have to have a restaurant activity license.” The key word: merchant. That the hospitality industry has raised its voice just now is no coincidence. Although supermarkets have been selling pre-cooked and ready-to-eat food for decades, in recent years some chains are shifting towards a new business model: the merchants. It is no longer about buying a tray of sushi, a cold tortilla or some pre-cooked noodles from a factory that the supermarket sells packaged. The key is that the customer can choose what they want to eat on a counter full of steaming stews, stews, fish… and then, if they want, they can devour that same food without leaving the store. The menu dilemma. Things get complicated there for bars, especially those that rely most on the concept of ‘menu of the day’: an affordable, varied and time-saving gastronomic offer. For years bars dominated that field. Now they have to fight with heavyweights like Mercadona, which offer prices that are difficult to match by family businesses that have been juggling for some time to make their menus profitable. This change in trend was summed up wonderfully well a few months ago by a gym instructor who The World interviewed while eating in a Mercadona in Madrid: “Although they pay me for the food, this is more practical and faster. You eat for six euros and I don’t spend 45 minutes. I haven’t eaten from a menu since summer.” In that same reportage The journalist spoke with other customers who came to Juan Roig’s store to buy dishes (stews, casseroles…) that they then ate in their own living rooms or office. Two years ago they might have gone to a bar with a menu or cooked at home. Not anymore. Has things changed that much? The data is revealing. In 2025 Mercadona had a turnover of around 700 million euros in Spain through its ‘Ready to Eat’ section. It may not seem like a big deal for a corporation whose sales exceeded 41.8 billionbut it is good to keep several things in mind. First, the ‘Ready to Eat’ section is very young. It was launched in 2018 and has expanded to more than 1,400 points of sale. Second, that those 700 million of euros are just part of the cake. If we take into account the entire supply of pre-cooked products (refrigerated, trays…) and the business in Portugal, the figure rises to 3,000 million. To give us an idea, this figure exceeds the annual sales of McDonald’s in Spain (2 billion) or Burger King (1,500). In general, it is estimated that the Valencian chain accounts for a 19.7% share of value in food and beverage consumption. That is, almost two out of every ten euros What we spend on that branch ends up in the company’s coffers. A key percentage: 7.6%. To understand how quickly the prepared food business is expanding, it is good to review Algori data advanced a few days ago by theEconomist. According to the consultancy, this segment was (by far) the one that recorded the greatest growth in sales volume last year among supermarkets and hypermarkets in Spain. In general, the sale of pre-cooked and cooked dishes soared by 7.6% in volume. Above fruits and vegetables (7%), meats (6.1%) and fish and seafood (4.9%). The Valencian chain is not the only one that is committed to this business niche, although it has managed to lead it. Your … Read more

Mercadona has gotten rid of its search engine and replaced it with its own. They did it in a month with Claude Code and saved 90%

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Mercadona’s online store processes 4.4 million searches a week. Until recently, that volume was managed Algoliaa well-established search service used by companies like Sephora or LVMH. They had been with him for eight years. Now They have replaced it with their own search enginebuilt largely by José Ramón Pérez Agüera, CTO of Mercadona Tech. He has done it largely by himself, from his home, over a long weekend. This is how he told it in a successful LinkedIn post which now extends us in a video call with Xataka. “I’m going to be very honest and I know that this is going to look tacky, but it’s the truth,” says Pérez Agüera. “70% of the work (implementing the search engine, improving search quality and laying the foundation) took three days. One weekend plus an extended Monday.” The result: an 85% improvement in the quality of the ranking, the complete elimination of searches without results (previously 4% of the total) and a reduction in the monthly cost of between 9,000 and 15,000 dollars with Algolia to less than 900. That is, a saving of between 90% and 94% depending on the month. A decision that had been on hold for years The idea of ​​abandoning Algolia is not new at Mercadona Tech, it had been ruminating for a long time. The reasons are not surprising either: the search engine directly moves between 30 and 35% of the products that end up in the cart, which makes it a critical piece of business. And Algolia, like most SaaS services, has a pricing model that scales with use: as the company grows, the cost grows, with no way to stabilize it. “In the end you end up in a vendor lock-in of very critical software that is then difficult to get rid of,” explains Pérez Agüera. But Every time the team considered building something of their own, the work estimate was pushed back.. “The most optimistic vision we had, and with a much more basic version than the one we are going to release now, was five months. And it already seemed fast to me.” Then came the era of AI agents in software development. Pérez Agüera used Claude Code as the main tool and began to experiment on his own, without a formal project or assigned team. More out of curiosity than anything else. For playing. What AI did and what it didn’t The technical process combines hybrid search (by keywords and semantics) with a machine learning system that optimizes the ranking of results. AI made it possible to iterate on dozens of experiments in hours, analyze 479 MB of catalog and analytics data in days, and explore different ranking configurations by chatting with the agent instead of manually implementing them one by one. “I easily did 40 or 50 experiments in a weekend. That would have traditionally taken me weeks,” he explains. But the speed has a precise limit: the 29 technical decisions that AI did not make. Documentation generated during the experimentation process with Claude Code: the 14 parameters that Mercadona’s search engine evaluates to order results (from the popularity of a product to how well it fits semantically with what the user is looking for), its relative weight in the final ranking (popularity and semantic similarity account for two thirds of the decision) and the configuration of the machine learning model used to train it, based on click and purchase data from the last four weeks. Each of those parameters was discussed and validated with the AI ​​agent, but the final selection was made by the human team. Image provided by Mercadona Tech. The most representative was the choice of the indexing engine. Most systems, and probably any AI agent consulted, would have recommended Elasticsearch, the most widespread solution. Pérez Agüera chose Tantivy, a much smaller library written in Rust that integrates as an embedded component, without the need for a separate Java virtual machine. An impossible decision without knowledge of the Mercadona ecosystem. “The AI ​​always recommends the most generic option,” he says. “I made that decision because I have the context and the knowledge to make it.” The transfer to the team When the core of the search engine was ready, the project passed to the engineering team. What they found was not bad code, but it was ccode that did not follow Mercadona Tech’s internal standards. The architecture was hexagonal, as is the company’s style, but it used a different approach than usual. The tests existed (Pérez Agüera applied TDD during development) but some did not make sense or were missing cases. The agent had written thousands of lines of code in a few hours and reviewing them all was unfeasible. “The team’s Tech Lead took two or three days to adapt the project to our good practices,” he summarizes. “Not because the code was wrong, but because it didn’t meet our standards as a company.” In total, adding the initial phase and the launch into production, which includes load testing, infrastructure adjustment and integration into the Mercadona Online architecture; The project has taken approximately a month of work. And “two and a half people” have been in charge of it: Pérez Agüera, the Tech Lead of the Shop team and a part-time Staff Engineer for infrastructure. The original five-month estimate required five or six people. “FWe have easily done a x5 to the speed of the projectand what we have now is much more advanced than what we would have had in five months,” he says. What changes for the teams For Pérez Agüera, the search engine is one more experiment within a larger transformation that Mercadona Tech continues to process internally. The question on the table is not whether to use AI in development, but how to redesign the entire development process based on it. His diagnosis of the profiles is forceful: “AI is going to mean that fewer developers are needed and more engineers are needed. Coding loses value per se; the … Read more

A supermarket chain is expanding and selling more than ever in the Mercadona fiefdom: Masymas

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Mercadona dominates the sector of food in Spain, but this control is especially robust in the Valencian Community, where splits its roots the company directed by Juan Roig. There the chain monopolizes more than 30% of the entire business, above the average share it has in the country as a whole. Although with such data it would be logical to think that the rest of the competitors have little room to expand their sales in that fiefdom, a family chain has insisted on prove the opposite. Its name: Masymas Supermarkets. Despite the competition from Mercadona, the chain, with stores spread throughout the Valencian Community and Murcia, is achieving increase your turnover. One figure: 440.3 million. 2025 has not been a bad year for the Masymas supermarkets managed by Juan Fornés SA. At least according to the figures presented by the company itself, which just revealed which in 2025 reached a turnover of 440.3 million euros (sales with VAT). Although other key indicators are missing (such as the result), at first it seems like good data on two counts: it means 4.3% more than the previous year and consolidates the increase in income that the chain has been registering for years. According to your balancein 2021 it had a turnover of 321.2 million, a figure that rose to 360.6 million in 2022 and has continued to grow since then. In five years the increase has been 22%. A percentage: 3%. It is not the only positive indicator left by the chain directed by Fornés. Your sales grew by 3% in volume and the company boasts of having invested 15 million between renovations and the opening of two new points of sale, one in Dénia (Alicante) and another in Las Torres de Cotillas (Murcia). Its loyalty program has also reached 227,000 homes. Regarding its sales network, the chain manages 115 super distributed throughout the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia, 45 of them under the Masymas basic brand. This year it plans to open two more establishments in Calpe and Sueca. In total, the company has a staff of 2,763 people200 more than in 2020. Why is it important? Beyond the interest that these data may have for the chain’s clients, Masymas’ balance sheet leaves an interesting reading for the sector: the super regionals continue to find holes to expand. Even in a scenario as complex as the great fiefdom of Mercadona. Although Juan Roig’s company leads the sector in market share at a national level, this dominance is especially intense in Alicante, Castellón, Valencia, Murcia and Albacete. A recent study from Worldpanel by Numerator shows that its footprint there reaches 33.6%, above the 27% share nationally. The complete “photo”. Masymas has not revealed its market share, but the analysis from Worldpanel by Numerator suggests that he doesn’t have it easy. In the Levant as a whole, the second best positioned chain is Consum (16.8%), followed by Carrefour (7.9%), Lidl (5.2%) and Family Cash (2.9%). In any case, these percentages must be handled carefully: Worldpanel studies a broader area than Masymas covers, focusing on the Valencian and Murcian coasts. When studying the case of Masymas, another characteristic that the company itself reports must be taken into account. on your website: The brand actually belongs to a company owned by four different companies. One focuses on Asturias and León. Another in Alicante and Valencia. A stubborn one in Córdoba and Jaén. And the fourth, Juan Fornés SA, in Castellón, Valencia, Alicante and Murcia. It was the latter that has disclosed your 2025 billing data. The push of the regional. The case of Masymas connects with a larger phenomenon that goes beyond the Levant: the push of regional supermarket chains. Although in recent years Mercadona has achieved dominate the sector (both in value share and percentage of buyers) and that they are forced to compete with multinationals the size of Grupo Carrefour, Lidl, Aldi or Alcampo, regional companies are holding their own. Worldpanel by Numerator estimates that after growing 0.4 percentage points (pp), its share reached 18.5% in 2025. The data shows “symptoms of deceleration”, as the consulting firm points out, but it is still significant. In fact Masymas is not the only one that is growing. The Galician Froiz has also done it and months ago The Country revealed that Consum, based in Valencia, aims in the same address. How is it possible? This resilience is partly explained by its territorial penetration, customer loyalty, the sale of local products and direct treatment. While Mercadona wants to bet Because of the fish already cut and packaged in trays, in many regional supermarkets it is still possible to find a stall with fresh goods and a fishmonger with whom to deal in person. The same happens with fruit, vegetables, meat or sausages, which for some analysts They turn super regional stores into successors to neighborhood stores. White label and cooked food. There is another important detail in Masymas’ strategy. The chain boasts so much of its “own brands”focused on food, home, cosmetics and pet care, as well as its “Kitchen Section”, which it has implemented in thirty stores. The signature promotes it as a space with prepared dishes, such as chicken, rice, lasagna or noodles. Both bets are very similar to the strategy that Mercadona has deployed in recent years, although the two chains are still very far apart in billing. Masymas has gone from 440 million euros in 2025, but the signing of Roig has touched the 39.8 billion. And that in Spain, without its Portugal stores. Images | Masymas Supermarkets 1 and 2 In Xataka | Years ago we feared that an “apocalypse” would sweep through shopping centers. In Spain, exactly the opposite is happening.

Mercadona is growing more than ever and still has the capacity to grow more. The game is played in the north

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He who leads always leads, even if he does not always lead the same way. It sounds like a tacky tongue twister, I know; but that phrase sums up well the place that Mercadona occupies in the national distribution sector. We have been repeating for years that the Valencian chain is the one that takes largest portion of the “pie” of the sector, with a business quota 27% at the state level, but that reality is not equally forceful throughout Spain. For example, in Levante its footprint skyrockets to almost 34% while in the northwest it remains at 18.2%, only three points above its most direct competitor in that region, Eroski. What does that mean? That there is a part of Spain in which the company has ample room for growth. And in a way the Duero marks it. The general photo. Whether or not you are satisfied with your commercial offer or corporate strategythere is something that cannot be denied: Mercadona has known how to play its cards well. The company led by Juan Roig has managed to gain a share in its sector that is close to 30%. And that the distribution is not un simple business in Spain, where the super regional and ultra low-cost. NielsenIQ estimates that by the end of 2025 that footprint was 29.5%0.3% more than in 2024. Worldpanel by Numerator lowers it slightly until it is in 27%. In any case, the reading is the same: the Valencian company clearly dominates, comfortably ahead of its most direct competitors, Carrefour and Lidl. It has even made a more than respectable place for itself in the portuguese marketwhere it has carved out a 7% distribution share in just a decade. Paying attention to the map. The above will surprise few. What is striking is that just revealed Expansion based on data from Worldpanel by Numerator: Mercadona may be the sector leader in value share, but that dominance is not equally solid throughout Spain. Its great fiefdom is in what the consultancy calls ‘Levante’, an area made up of the Valencian Community, Murcia and Albacete. There its share reaches 33.6%. Not only is it the highest percentage in the entire Spanish geography and it is seven percentage points above the chain’s national share. It also doubles the mark of its main competitor, Consum, which remains at 16.8%. The ‘photo’ It is completed by Carrefour, with 7.9% of the pie, Lidl (5.2%) and Family Cash (2.9%). Are there more cases? Of course. The other region in which Mercadona has gained the largest share in value is the Canary Islands, with 31.9%, ten points above the next chain on the list, Dinosol (21.1%). In the ‘South’ territory (Andalusia and Badajoz) the firm’s footprint also exceeds 30% (31.5%). The results of Mercadona are equally strong in the ‘Central’ region (Madrid, Cáceres and part of Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Aragón), where it reaches 27.5%, and ‘Northwest’ (Catalonia and the rest of Aragón), with 26.2%. In all cases the same photograph is repeated, replicated in the areas of Madrid and Barcelona: Mercadona far surpasses its main territorial rival. The northern redoubt. The really interesting thing is, however, in the northern Atlantic and Cantabrian seas. The Worldpanel data by Numerator They show that Mercadona is still a leader there, but in a much less emphatic way. First because its quota is much lower than that held in Levante or the Canary Islands. Second, because it does not maintain much of an advantage over its competitors. The most revealing case is the ‘North-Central’ (Cantabria, Navarra, Palencia, Burgos, La Rioja and the Basque Country), a territory in which Mercadona’s footprint is 19.1%. It is enough to be dominant, but it is only one percentage point behind Eroski (18.1%). In third place is Carrefour (9.8%). It is a scenario similar to what we find in Galicia, Asturias and León, what the consultancy calls ‘Northwest’. Mercadona registers its lowest share in that region, 18.22%. Second place is once again occupied by Eroski (15.1%), followed by Gadisa (10.1%), Carrefour (6.8%) and Alimerka (5.8%). Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it important? Beyond the fact that these percentages help us better understand how the company is distributed and how it has managed to dominate the market at a national level, the regional results from Worldpanel by Numerator leave an interesting reading about Mercadona: its future largely passes through the north of the peninsula, where it has greater room for growth. When we decide where to make the purchase, we not only evaluate the prices and variety of the assortment, we also take into account factors such as proximity or more subjective values ​​such as taste or loyalty to a brand. Together they form a ‘barrier’ that determines how far a company’s share can go. At the moment Mercadona has managed to extend its footprint nationwide to 27%. It is not unreasonable to think that even has not hit the ceilingbut the fact that in the northwest area it is only 18.2% and in the Cantabrian Sea it is around 19% suggests that in those territories the margin for growth is much broader and clearer. Not everything is advantages. No, of course. The data published by Expansion They also reveal that the leadership of the Valencian chain is much weaker in the northwest and the area made up of the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja and the north of Castilla y León, where it is only one point ahead of its regional rival, Eroski. This makes it easier for them to be overtaken and to see their position threatened. After all, Mercadona has not been established throughout the country for the same amount of time. In Vigo, without going any further, I only had two stores in mid-2013. And that is a city of almost 300,000 inhabitants, the largest in the entire northwest of the peninsula. If it wants to establish itself, Roig’s company will have to erode the share of … Read more

Prepared food already represents a business of 3,000 million for Mercadona. And that is a problem for McDonald’s and Burger King

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The proverb says that a picture is worth a thousand words. The success of the so-called ‘merchants’ Supermarkets that are hybridizing to become places where you can buy and consume already cooked dishes are not only measured in images and words. It can also be followed with something much more forceful: figures. One of the most resounding he just left her Mercadona. Throughout 2025, the Valencian chain had a turnover of around 700 million euros in Spain through its section ‘Ready to eat’. If we expand the focus to include its pre-cooked offering (refrigerated, trays…) the joint business volume in Spain and Portugal amounts to 3,000 million euros. What has happened? We have just obtained data that helps us better understand how the ‘Ready to Eat’ section is working for Mercadona. According to the information advanced by Food RetailIn 2025, the Valencian chain invoiced 700 million euros in Spain through this channel. Perhaps it seems like a discreet figure when compared to its global sales, which were close to 39.8 billion in Spain, but it is interesting for two big reasons. First, because the ‘Ready to Eat’ section is young. It was not launched until 2018. Since then Mercadona has been expanding it throughout its network (in 2025 it reached 210 new supermarkets) until it was present, at the end of last year, in 1,469 points of sale from Spain and Portugal. The second reason is that in reality ‘Ready to eat’ is only one of the multiple channels that allow Mercadona to capitalize on the growing demand for already cooked food. If the entire business and its turnover in Spain and Portugal are taken into account, the level of income is much higher. How much do you earn then? In total, if we count both the business generated by the ‘Ready to eat’ section and the sale of pre-cooked food (creams, packaged chicken or refrigerated pizza, for example), Mercadona entered around 3 billion of euros in Spain and Portugal. Not only does it represent just over 7% of the company’s global turnover, it also shows a growth of 20%, which confirms the potential of that line of business. The figure helps to understand Mercadona’s commercial strategy, which has been betting on the ‘Ready to eat’ section for years (in 2025 it implemented it in 250 new super) and in recent months it has redoubled its bet, adding to its offer of dishes and desserts a new service of freshly ground coffee. The cooked food sections also play a decisive role in the so-called ‘Store 9’the new establishment format that the company wants to implement in its network. Does the data matter that much? It is certainly striking. FRS contributes another brushstroke which helps to understand to what extent the sale of pre-cooked or ready-to-eat food has grown in Mercadona. The 3,000 million euros registered in Spain and Portugal in 2025 far exceed McDonald’s annual sales in Spain (around 2 billion euros) or Burger King (others 1.5 billion). In fact, it almost equals the sum of both subsidiaries. It’s not surprising at all. Mercadona has conquered 20% of the entire food and beverage business (in value share) and ships a large part of the hamburgers with buns sold in Spain. According to the Numerator signatureis behind approximately 10.2% of consumption occasions. They are just nine points lower than the national market leader McDonald’s (19.5%). Does it only happen with Mercadona? At all. The chain stands out for its considerable market share, but it is not the only one seeking to benefit from the growing demand for already cooked food. In February, the consulting firm NielsenIQ estimated that “prepared and ready-to-eat food solutions” are growing at a rate of more than 10% in supermarkets and hypermarkets, which is in turn shaping a billion-dollar business. “Right now this segment represents a total of about 3.7 billion,” explains Nacho Biedmatechnician of the consulting firm, in an interview with elDiario. There are analysts who calculate that the distribution sector (which includes supermarkets) already monopolizes 23% of what we spend on food outside the home. Why this change? Because consumer habits are not immutable. We do not eat the same, nor in the same way nor in the same places as our grandparents. And our grandchildren probably have different habits too. I predicted it last year Juan Roig, predicting that in the middle of this century Spanish homes will no longer have kitchens, so supermarkets will become more than just the place where we buy food to fill our refrigerators: they will be our great reference in food. Beyond these changes at the domestic level, sections like ‘Ready to Eat’ play a great role. They offer customers variety, agility and, above all, rates that traditional bars can hardly match. Prepared meals from supermarkets are in a way the successors of a ‘menu of the day’ that has been in crisis for yearssuffocated by rising prices. More and more people stop going to the corner restaurant to spend 14 euros in a menu of first, second and dessert that will take you 45 minutes to consume. He goes to an Alcampo, Carrefour or Mercadona, buys a couple of dishes for 10 euros and devours them in less than half an hour in the dining room located in the supermarket itself. Many people even take cooked food to devour at home. Images | Mercadona Via | FRS In Xataka | Very few national supermarkets are resisting Mercadona: regional chains like Froiz are

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