Netherlands: Sales growth Action across Europe continues
- DRC Discount Retail Consulting GmbH
- 2 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Discount Variety Retail Chain Action, the non-food discounter, continued to deliver growth across Europe in the third quarter of 2025, despite softening consumer sentiment in Europe. Nine-month net sales grew to €11.2 billion, up 17.4% from 2024. Like-for-like sales growth was 6.3%, primarily driven by customer growth.
Action stores once more delivered strong customer growth with an especially strong performance in Italy and Spain. Action’s summer season assortment, from picnic ware to holiday necessities, also performed well. Like-for-like sales growth was impacted however by softening consumer sentiment, particularly in France.
“Customers across Europe continue to appreciate Action for what we do best: offer good quality products at the lowest price. Their love for Action is clearly visible from one number: the number of customers who shop in our stores. So far this year, we welcomed 20.6 million customers on average to our stores every week, up from 20.2 million,” comments Hajir Hajji, CEO Action.
Action is grateful to have received numerous customer and product awards recently. Action was honoured with the Golden Scaler 2025 Award as the fastest-growing company in the Netherlands, and is especially proud of winning the consumer awards Winkelketen van het Jaar (‘Retail Chain of the Year’) and Retailer van het Jaar (‘Retailer of the Year’) in the Netherlands, the country where Action began in 1993. In addition, Action was also named Bester Händler des Jahres (‘Best Retailer of the Year’) in two categories in both Germany and Austria, and received Migliore Insegna 2025 (‘Best Brand of 2025’) in Italy in the non-food discount category.
Store expansion: adding approximately 380 stores in 2025 and launch in Romania
On 24 September, Action opened its first store in Romania, in Pitești, marking the start of operations in its 14th market. Since then, Action added four more stores already. The initial results are fully in line with expectations.
In total, Action added 221 stores in the first nine months of 2025 across all 14 Action markets. Action is now on track to add approximately 380 stores in 2025, outperforming its original target of 370 stores.
In the third quarter, Action also welcomed another customer milestone: the Action app has been downloaded more than 10 million times. The Action app was introduced in 2021 in the Netherlands and is now available in all Action markets. The app offers customers first-hand information on Action products, highlighting weekly promotions and new products, and providing access to favourites lists, recommendations and in-app store receipts.
Action’s employee engagement continues to increase
Over the summer, Action conducted its biennial employee engagement survey. Action achieved a record response rate of more than 90%. The company finds it important to hear the voice of each and every colleague, enabling everyone to complete the survey during work hours. Action’s company-wide engagement improved compared to the previous survey, and again exceeded relevant engagement benchmarks.
“Action employees are the heart of our company. They focus on putting our customers first, welcoming them to our stores every single day,” says Hajir Hajji, Action CEO. “We highly appreciate their feedback, allowing us to improve our company constantly. The results of the survey underline the commitment of our colleagues to help our customers in the best way possible.”
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