Real

With more than 34,000 employees and 282 stores, Real is one of Germany’s leading hypermarket operators. Real stores offer a wide assortment that includes both food and several non-food product categories.

Real’s declared goal is to sustainably increase its customer relevance in the coming years. That’s why in financial year 2015/16, Real laid the foundation for a strategic realignment, which it systematically pursued and expanded in 2016/17. Real’s overall strategy includes the expansion of promising sales channels, such as the online shop and click-and-collect services, but also the comprehensive optimisation of the existing store network. The strategic realignment also requires for employees and management to think outside the box. Real promotes these cultural changes through the training programme “Werte in Aktion” (values in action), which focuses on the core values positivity, attentiveness and joint commitment for all kinds of cooperation in the company.

Strategic priorities

• Customer orientation: Real designs its product range and services with a greater focus on the wishes and needs of its customers. This is accompanied by the modernisation and spatial transformation of hypermarkets to increase productivity per square metre. We also continue to implement our so-called Food Lover concept. This is a new hybrid-store concept that combines the focus on customers with the benefits of large areas and addresses the specific needs of today’s and tomorrow’s retail customers. As a grocery store operator, our vision is to provide a unique shopping experience at all customer touchpoints, that is, at all possible points of contact between customers and our company. The opening of Markthalle Krefeld in November 2016 has set new standards for the shopping experience of the future. The concept takes into account both emotional and rational customer wishes and was extremely well received by the customers. Therefore, we want to extend the successful concept to other selected markets in the coming years.
• Selected investments: Real is making selected investments to establish itself as a multichannel retailer, strengthen its ultra-fresh categories and further expand its procurement partnerships and joint ventures. In April 2017, we established the RTG Retail Trade Group based in Hamburg. The established retail companies Real, Bartels-Langness, Bünting, Netto ApS, Klaas & Kock and Georg Jos. Kaes want to use this to considerably strengthen their competitiveness. The new network is an innovative high-performance platform of independent companies and operates nationwide across all sales formats – store-based and online. In e-commerce, the real.de website constitutes another step forward. In February 2017, we completed the integration of the previous Hitmeister online presence. Since then, the Real online marketplace has been offering customers a vast amount of items in 5,000 categories. External online retailers can also market their products there. In the e-food sector, Real has been testing the online food shop since April 2017, where customers can conveniently order their goods online and pick them up from any one of 10 markets. This also prepares the company for any potential increase in e-food demand.
• Increase in cost efficiency: We have streamlined our management structures, leveraged synergies within the group and restructured our core functions. In addition, we are restructuring our administration and consolidating functions within the group. In mid‑2016, Real and the Verdi trade union agreed on a future collective agreement. The goal is to create structures that are competitive and offer good working conditions. Real generally accepts the regional collective agreements of the retail industry and is, beyond that, negotiating with Verdi trade union for a new remuneration structure.