Discount Variety Retail Chain Action Spain (owned by PE 3iGroup) opens its 25th store in Spain and its 2,500th in Europe. Its new store is located in the Oasiz Madrid shopping centre, in the town of Torrejón de Ardoz, where the company already has another space. In total, it reaches 6 stores in the Community of Madrid. The new store, with a staff of 24 people, has more than 1,000 square meters. The establishment arrives in the Madrid shopping centre thanks to Linkmall, a company specialising in marketing.
We chatted with its Director of Real Estate in Spain, David Blanquer, who explains the sustainable growth of this Dutch company with a presence in 11 countries. The growth of the brand in our country has been meteoric in a year and a half. "The goal," says David Blanquer, "is to close the year with 26 stores. The next opening will be in Girona next week."
In the first year, the brand opened 5 stores in Catalonia. Subsequently, in 2023 they have opted to expand to new territories (Levante, Murcia and Madrid) to 21 openings. Looking ahead to 2024, "we want to maintain the same pace of openings and target new territories on the peninsula to consolidate our presence in the country and increase brand awareness."
In this way, Action plans to open "between 30 and 40 stores per year". Next quarter they will expand their presence in Zaragoza, Madrid and Valencia and will land in Segovia and Puertollano. This network of stores will be complemented, according to the director of Real Estate, "by a warehouse in the Toledo town of Illescas, which will begin operating at the end of 2024. With 36,000 square meters, it will serve our network of stores, as the supply currently comes from France."
Currently, they are looking for locations with a high population density: "In the case of Torrejón de Ardoz, we have chosen this second store in Oasiz Madrid because we focus on a more regional area since it is located in a commercial area of great attraction for the adjacent towns," adds Blanquer. Undoubtedly, "this growth drives us to speed up the brand awareness we are looking for and customer satisfaction."
In terms of investment, "Action's stores always operate on a rental basis, as the company does not have a patrimonial vocation. Thus, we are looking for premises that are around 1,000 square meters, for sales rooms of around 800 m2, with a workforce of between 20 and 25 employees per store," says the executive.
Regarding its presence in Spain, Blanquer speaks of "optimism" and a "vocation for face-to-face sales". Spain is welcoming the company's business model and that has led them to set very ambitious targets: "The idea is to reach the same weight in Spain as other countries such as France, with a network of 750 stores, but with sustainable and progressive growth. It is also supported by an increase in logistics capacity of up to 5 warehouses," predicts the executive.
"Our concept is the non-food hard discount. We have 6,000 products distributed in 14 families – from toys and handicrafts to household items, gardening, DIY and food. Our added value is the dynamism of the assortment, including 150 new products on the shelves every week," said Blanquer about the "Action Formula". The truth is that Action's commitment is based on the shopping experience and a local business. "We rely on word of mouth and customer satisfaction to generate positive feedback to attract new consumers," Blanquer adds about loyalty.
INAUGURATION IN TORREJÓN DE ARDOZ
The inauguration was attended by the mayor of Torrejón de Ardoz, Alejandro Navarro, who welcomed this new store and thanked the company for its commitment to the town. In addition, he added that this establishment "is a sign of the importance of this popular discount chain that has great growth and acceptance by its customers. I am sure that with such a good background and the daily work you will have very good results in our city."
To celebrate, the brand has distributed 2,500 euros among the first 250 attendees who have attended this opening from 9 a.m., giving a discount voucher worth 10 euros. This voucher can be used on the same day to purchase any of the more than 6,000 products that the company has on its shelves at very affordable prices.
"Celebrating this remarkable milestone highlights the efforts of our dedicated team of more than 60,000 Action employees. We really appreciate the warm welcome we have received in Spain since we opened our first store here. It's great to see that Spanish customers like to shop at Action. Looking ahead, we are committed to accelerating our international expansion in the coming years, with the goal of serving millions of customers across Europe," says Hajir Hajji, CEO of Action.
Bart Raeymaekers, Action's Regional Director and Managing Director for Spain, adds: "The company's growth plan for the coming years is aimed at creating more local jobs. Since the opening of our first store in Spain in 2022, we have created jobs for a total of more than 550 Spanish colleagues. We are committed to continuing to expand our team to provide the best shopping experience for our customers."
