Only six from Islamic countries among world’s top 250 largest retailers, led by UAE’s Majid Al Futtaim

Only six companies based in Islamic countries are on the list of the world’s 250 largest retailers by revenue.

UAE’s Majid Al Futtaim and Emke Group/Lulu Group International, Turkey’s BIM Birlesik Magazalar and A101 Yeni Magazacilik, as well as Indonesia’s Indomarco Prismatama and Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, are on Deloitte’s annual list as published in the Global Powers of Retailing 2020 edition released on Monday (Feb 10).

Majid Al Futtaim was the largest of the Islamic countries-based retailers, ranking 138th according to publicly available data of revenue for the year ending June 30, 2019. The UAE company’s FY2018 retail revenue was $7.62 billion and it operates in 14 countries, according to the report.

Emke Group/Lulu Group International is 141st with $7.4 billion in retail revenue. It operates in 10 countries.

Turkish retailer BIM Birlesik Magazalar follows at 157th. The discount store earned $6.66 billion and operates in 3 countries.

Indonesia’s Indomaret is 209th with $4.94 billion in retail revenue. It only operates in its home country. The convenience store is also the 31st fastest-growing retailer for the period FY2013-2018.

Another Indonesian convenience/forecourt store that only operates at home is Alfamart, ranked 219th. It earned $4.69 billion in revenue. Alfamart was the 38th fastest-growing retailer for FY2013-2018.

In 241st place is another Turkish discount store, A101 Yeni Magazacilik. It brought in $4.129 billion and only operates in Turkey. The retailer is also identified by Deloitte as the fifth fastest-growing for FY2013-2018.

The report said that in the Middle East (including Turkey), consumer expenditure was subdued and retailers were exposed to pressure from e-commerce and changes in shopping behavior.

“This is due mainly to rising costs associated with economic reforms, such as workforce localization, taxes, and higher fuel and electricity prices.

“Hence, with price-conscious consumer spending, hard discounters such as A101 Yeni Mağazacılık and BİM Birleşik Mağazala are gaining in popularity,” said the report.

In the Asia Pacific, retail growth continued to be driven by changing shopping preferences among a growing middle-class, particularly young millennials, said Deloitte.

It also attributes retail growth to the increasing adoption of e-commerce and m-commerce by physical retailers in the region.

GLOBAL RETAIL OUTLOOK UNCERTAIN

Deloitte said the outlook for the global economy and retail industry in 2020 is uncertain.

“Overall economic growth is likely to be subdued but positive, with lower growth in consumer spending and inflation in most countries remaining low.

“Further uncertainty surrounding the global economy has been added by the coronavirus outbreak in China early in the year,” it added.

The 250 biggest retailers in the world earned $4.74 trillion in retail revenue, an increase of 4.1% year-on-year, according to the report.

This growth is slower than the 5.7% registered in the previous year.

Seven of the 10 biggest retailers are American but Europe has the highest number of Top 250 retailers, with 88 companies based in the region and its share of revenue was 34.4%.

Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer with $514.405 billion in revenue and operating in 28 countries. Costco is second with $141.576 billion and Amazon is third with $140.211 billion. Germany’s Schwarz Group ranks fourth with $121.581 billion.

FMCG continues to be the biggest product sector, with 136 companies generating 65.5% of the top 250’s retail revenue in FY2018.

However, the report said e-commerce is driving high retail revenue growth among the fastest-growing 50 companies.

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