Deloitte Global report ranks six Southeast Asian players amongst Top 250 retailers, of which four are also amongst the Top 50 fastest-growing

Singapore, 17 May 2021 – The Top 250 global retailers generated aggregated revenues of US$4.85 trillion in fiscal year 2019, representing composite growth of 4.4%, according to Global Powers of Retailing 2021, a new report from Deloitte Global.

“The challenge for policymakers will be to control the pandemic outbreak, protect those who have been disrupted, and speed up the distribution of vaccines,” says Dr. Ira Kalish, Deloitte Global Chief Economist. “The success of these imperatives will determine the path of the global economy in the year ahead.”

Global Powers of Retailing Top 250

The world’s Top 10 retailers share of the total retail revenue of the Top 250 increased again, to 32.7%, compared to 32.2% in the previous year. Retail revenue growth by the Top 10 in FY2019 was down 1.9 percentage points from the previous year, to 4.4%, the same as for the Top 250 retailers, on a composite sales-weighted and currency-adjusted basis. The Top 10 list continued to be dominated by American companies, with seven of the ten companies being based in the United States.

The minimum revenue for a company to enter the Top 250 rankings is US$4.0 billion, up from US$3.9 billion in the previous year, with an average company size of US$19.4 billion.

With the largest number of companies (135) in the Top 250 list, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) ¹ retailers generated 66.0% of the retail revenue in FY2019. Retailers in this sector have the largest average retail revenue (US$23.7 billion), however this is a low-margin sector with the lowest net profit margin of all the sectors (2.0%).

“e-Commerce and discounters drove high retail revenue growth,” says Evan Sheehan, Deloitte Global Retail, Wholesale & Distribution Sector leader. “Five out of the top ten fastest-growing retailers were online retailers and seven out of the top 20 fastest-growing companies were discount retailers.”

Geographical analysis

Europe had the highest number of Top 250 retailers, with 87 companies based in the region. The North American retailers contributed nearly half of the total Top 250 revenue in FY2019, and had the largest average retail revenue, US$28.6 billion, which is much higher than the average Top 250 size of US$19.4 billion.

In terms of growth, however, retailers based in the Asia Pacific region increased their share of the global Top 250 revenue by 0.8 percentage points, to 16.2% – with more new entrants than any other region. They also achieved the highest FY2019 year-on-year growth at 7.1%. In total, 17 companies witnessed double-digit growth in their retail revenues in FY2019.

Companies from China, Japan, and Hong Kong SAR had the highest representation amongst Asia Pacific retailers – although six Southeast Asian retailers from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam also emerged within the Top 250 ranking.

Southeast Asia highlights

Of the six Southeast Asian players, four of them – two from Indonesia, as well as one each from Philippines and Vietnam – have been ranked within the Top 50 fastest-growing retailers. These companies belong to the three categories of Convenience/Forecourt Store; Hypermarket/Supercentre/Superstore; and Electronic Specialty.

This result is in line with the observations from some of our latest consumer research conducted in Southeast Asia, which revealed that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a shift in consumption habits as consumers adapt to new ways of living and working. Specifically, as they spend more time at home, consumers are increasing their expenditure on self-prepared meals, and investing in better connectivity and smart appliances to more effectively work or study from home.

“Amidst the ongoing economic uncertainty, Southeast Asian consumers are also shifting their priorities towards necessities such as groceries, and are becoming more prudent with their expenditures in at least the short-term,” says Pua Wee Meng, Deloitte Southeast Asia’s Consumer Industry Leader. “This means that consumer companies must focus on achieving price competitiveness, including streamlining processes and diversifying their offerings.”

“Furthermore, the pandemic’s acceleration of digital behaviours is likely to be long-lasting, if not permanent. Across all consumer segments – even amongst those often perceived to be somewhat less digitally savvy – we have observed a palpable shift towards the use of digital and e-commerce channels. Businesses should therefore also consider how they can better leverage next-generation technologies to improve their offline-online customer experiences,” he added.

¹Fast-moving consumer goods: Products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost.

About Global Powers of Retailing

The report identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for FY2019 (fiscal years ended through 30 June 2020), and analyzes their performance across geographies and product sectors. It also provides a global economic outlook, looks at the 50 fastest-growing retailers, and highlights new entrants to the Top 250.

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