Netherlands: Action published its 2023 financial results

Discount Variety Retail Chain Action’s net sales increased by 27.8% to €11.3 billion, largely as a result of like-for-like sales growth of 16.7%. Action added 303 new stores and operated a total of 2,566 stores in 11 countries. Operating EBITDA increased by 34% to €1.615 Billion. Action created 8,988 jobs and employed 69,040 people of 155 different nationalities.

Action completed preparations for its market introduction in Portugal. The first store opened in the Porto district on 29 February 2024, soon followed by a second store in the Coimbra district. The first two stores were met with long queues of customers outside and in front of the checkouts, indicating a promising start for Action in its 12th European market.

Action CEO Hajir Hajji: “Our appealing and flexible formula has once again proven to be the basis of our success. We lowered prices of many of our products, allowing our customers to benefit from improved supply conditions. In 2023, we welcomed on average 15.3 million customers to our stores each week. I am very proud of our 69,040 committed colleagues who served this growing number of customers. We promoted 3,183 colleagues internally, supporting their professional development and maintaining Action’s DNA.”

Continued focus on product quality and sustainability

Action’s Sustainability Programme is on track to deliver the targets of its four pillars people, planet, product and partnership.

Hajir Hajji: “We reduce emissions in our own operations and have established our scope 3 emissions baseline. We are constantly focused on improving product quality and sustainability.”

In absolute terms, Action has reduced CO2 emissions from its own operations (scope 1 and scope 2) by 46% compared to the 2021 base year. Several measures contributed to this. The Action owned trucks, operated in the Netherlands, run on HVO 100 fuel. 99% of all stores were equipped with energy-saving LED lighting. A further 300 stores were switched from gas to electricity and all new stores operate on electricity only. Action’s two newly opened distribution centres obtained BREEAM ‘Excellent’ certification. Action remains on track to meet its scope 1 and 2 CO2 emission reduction target of 60% by 2030.

For the first time, Action established a baseline for its total scope 3 emissions as a basis for reduction initiatives: 5.5 million tonnes CO2 in 2021, our reference year. To develop CO2 reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement, Action has decided to commit (in 2024) to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Read more: Action results 2023: continued growth and development - Action