REWE GROUP
– Innovative and Successful
At Home in Trade and Tourism
The cooperative REWE Group is one of the leading trade and tourism groups in Europe and especially Germany.
Through the close relationship it maintains with its customers, REWE Group fulfils individual wishes every day – no matter whether this involves the buying or ordering of food, a person’s next holiday or DIY and gardening needs. REWE Group does business in 23 European countries, operates approximately 15,000 stores and employs about 345,000 people. Thanks to the around 77 million customers it averages each week, REWE Group generated total external revenue in 2022 of more than 84 billion euros in the company’s continuing operations, including the revenue produced by REWE’s independent retailers.
The success story reaches all the way back to 1927 when 17 purchasing cooperatives joined forces and founded the “Revisionsverband der Westkaufgenossenschaften”, or: REWE. Their goal was to jointly organise the purchase of food. The result of this effort is a cooperative business group whose identity is shaped by the values of solidarity, collaboration and the principle of sustainability. More than 90 years after its establishment, REWE Group is a successful company with a strong international image.
One REWE Group – Many Formats
A wide range of modern sales formats and brands has been united under the REWE Group umbrella. They turn shopping into a true experience – one that customers enjoy both in stores and online.
In the food retail business in Germany, REWE Group operates supermarkets that sell fresh foods and items customers need each day (REWE, REWE CITY and nahkauf), large consumer stores that offer wide product ranges (REWE CENTER) and discounters that are known for their inexpensive range (PENNY). Innovative convenience stores (REWE To Go) are another part of the company. The REWE To Go concept is also used in a large number of ARAL petrol stations. Production operations are part of REWE Group, too: The Glocken Bäckerei and the quality butcher Wilhelm Brandenburg make high-quality store-brand products for REWE and PENNY stores.
In addition to operating stationary stores, REWE Group does business online and provides its customers with a delivery service, a pickup service and a Germany-wide REWE parcel service for partner products. The REWE subsidiary REWE Digital is working to digitalise food retail in Germany and to offer omnichannel solutions.
REWE Group’s business expertise extends well beyond food retailing. Specialist stores are also part of the company’s portfolio: In Germany, REWE Group operates service-focused DIY stores (toom Baumarkt) and DIY stores for price-sensitive do-it-yourselfers (B1 Discount Baumarkt).
At Home Throughout Europe
REWE Group is a household name that extends beyond Germany’s borders: The company operates stores in 10 other European countries.
Germany is REWE Group’s domestic base. But it’s at home in 10 other European countries as well. REWE Group launched its internationalisation at the beginning of the 1990s. Today, the company generates nearly 30 per cent of its total external revenue outside Germany. Austria is the company’s biggest international generator of revenue. There, REWE Group is the market leader in food retail with its BILLA supermarkets, MERKUR consumer stores and PENNY discount stores. The portfolio also includes BIPA drugstores as well as the stores operated by independent ADEG retailers.
In the other countries, REWE Group is operating the following stores:
BILLA in Bulgaria, Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine; PENNY in Italy, Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary; and BIPA in Croatia.
REWE Group is also active abroad with its shop-in-shop concepts at petrol stations: in Austria with “MERKUR inside” at BP and “BILLA stop&shop” at JET; and in the Czech Republic with “BILLA stop&shop” at Shell.
Around the World
DER TOURISTIK GROUP is the company’s second core business and makes individual travel dreams come true.
Travel and tourism has been the second core pillar of REWE Group since 1988. DER Touristik Group is a network of travel experts that operates in 14 European countries. Each year, 7.1 million customers travel to 179 countries using DER Touristik Group. With 16 tour operators that include such well-known brands as Dertour, ITS, Kuoni, Apollo and Exim Tours, DER Touristik Group focuses on variety. Twenty-five travel specialists such as Kirker and Manta Reisen that cater to special and more discerning target groups complete the offer.
A total of 2,400 travel agencies that work very closely with customers in Germany, Great Britain, Eastern Europe and Switzerland provide personal assistance as the most important sales channel. The successful sales brands include DER Reisebüro, Derpart, DER Touristik Partner-Service and Kuoni. DER Business Travel and Derpart Travel Service offer comprehensive services for business travellers. Online sales brands such as der.com or prijsvrij.nl and the tour operator websites are part of the digitalisation strategy. As further mainstays of the group, five hotel brands and the Swedish charter airline Novair ensure that no travel wish is left unfulfilled. DER Touristik Group now offers its guests its own local destination agencies in 57 tourism regions. The agency network grew further in 2017, adding India and five African destinations.