SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, and consists of 13,623 stores in 48 countries. The company's name is an acronym of the slogan ''"Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig"'', which was used by van Well to describe the brand and translates as "All Benefit from Joint Co-operation Regularly". Its headquarters are located in Amsterdam. The company operates a partnership programme and has a presence in most European countries, as well as many others throughout Asia, Africa and Oceania. In fiscal year 2021, SPAR earned

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

41.2 billion in global sales, which represented a 3.3 percent increase over the previous year.

Etymology

The name was originally DESPAR, an acronym of the Dutch phrase ( en, "through united co-operation everyone regularly profits"). The acronym was chosen to resonate with the verb '' sparen'', which (related to English '' spare'') means "save oney in Dutch and some other languages, among them German and Scandinavian languages (with variants such as ''spara'' or ''spare''). "Spar" is Dutch for "

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

tree", after which the logo was chosen. As the organisation expanded across Europe, the name was abbreviated by dropping the ''DE'' prefix. There are some international naming variants: * In Hungary, 17 stores owned by SPAR located at

Lukoil The PJSC Lukoil Oil Company ( stylized as LUKOIL or ЛУКОЙЛ in Cyrillic script) is a Russian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Moscow, specializing in the business of extraction, production, transport, and sale of petrol ...

filling stations operate under the name ''DESPAR''. However, there are also many SPAR and INTERSPAR locations. * In Italy, the name is still ''DESPAR'', though in keeping with the international branding, the ''SPAR'' section of the logo is highlighted, and the larger shops are still called EuroSPAR and InterSPAR. * In Austria, ''DESPAR'' is SPAR's Italian food product range. There are also ''INTERSPAR'' locations within Austria. * In Croatia, ''SPAR'' and ''INTERSPAR'' locations run concurrently. *In Arabia, the Latin letters ''SPAR'' are displayed next to the Arabic سبار (''sbār''). *In Iran, it is called اسپار (''Aspar''). *In

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, it is known as 斯巴超市 (''Sībā chāoshì'', "Siba supermarket"). *In Ireland, as well in Russia both the SPAR and EUROSPAR names are used, with EUROSPAR being used mostly for larger supermarket sized stores and SPAR for smaller convenience stores.

History

Spar was founded in 1932, in the

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

town of Zegwaart (now part of Zoetermeer). In 1953, an International Spar office opened in Amsterdam to control and further develop the organisation throughout Europe and other continents. Many Spar shops are in Europe, but they can also be found in a number of countries outside of Europe, such as

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Seychelles,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, Cameroon,

, India. Spar opened in Vanuatu on 1 December 2009, ending Au Bon Marché's grocery monopoly. A Spar shop may be owned independently, by a

franchisee Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

, or be part of a chain, depending on the model applied in any given country. The owners of the parent company vary from country to country and may include the shop owners themselves. The name and the current logo was most recently revised in 1968 by

Raymond Loewy Raymond Loewy ( , ; November 5, 1893 – July 14, 1986) was a French-born American industrial designer who achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of industries. He was recognized for this by ''Time'' magazi ...

and has since remained unchanged. In the United Kingdom Spar, founded in 1959, may be a supermarket or a convenience shop, and is more common in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

than Great Britain. In 1997, Spar was introduced to most United Kingdom military bases by the

Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI ) is a company created by the British government on 9 December 1920 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families. It runs ...

(Naafi), where it sells a variety of civilian and military products. In Ireland the Spar brand is known for neighbourhood shops and also the subformat Eurospar acting as mini-supermarkets. Since 1996, the company has been a major sponsor of the

European Athletic Association The European Athletic Association (more commonly known as European Athletics) is the governing body for athletics in Europe. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body World Athletics. European Athletics has 51 ...

and its events. The Dutch Spar is a member of

Superunie Coöperatieve Inkoop Vereniging Superunie B.A. is a Dutch wholesale purchasing cooperative among 14 supermarket companies. Several of these 14 represent multiple supermarket formulas (including brand licensing franchises). In total Superunie suppl ...

, an inventory purchasing organisation for a number of otherwise unaffiliated supermarket brands. In 1988, SPAR South Africa became a wholly owned subsidiary of

Tiger Brands Tiger Brands Limited () is a South African packaged goods company. In addition to the company's South African operations, Tiger Brands has direct and indirect interests in international food businesses in Chile, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ke ...

, a holding company with a large diversified portfolio, however it was unbundled and listed as a separate company in 2004. In July 2014, Spar Group South Africa opened its first supermarket in

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but no expansion of the brand is planned for this market. Since 2021, the group has 100% of the BWG Group, which had outlets in Ireland and southern Britain. In 2015,

Ahold Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch multinational retail company based in Zaandam, Netherlands. It merged with Belgium-based Delhaize Group in 2016 to form Ahold Delhaize. History Growth in the Netherlands The company started in 1887, when A ...

acquired all 35 hypermarkets and 14 supermarkets from Spar

Czechia The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Cz ...

for more than 5.2 billion

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. and converted them into

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

super- and hypermarkets, however it had to divest itself of some shops in order not to have a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

. The first SPAR shop in Oman was inaugurated in January 2015, in

Muscat Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total population of Muscat Governorate was ...

. Spar Oman has plans to open more shops over time as part of its expansion plans in Oman. Spar opened its first store in Qatar in 2017, with the second store opening in 2018. A further two stores are planned for 2018. SPAR opened in Saudi Arabia in 2017, sublicensed to Al-Sadhan Group opening the first stores in

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, Literal translation, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi Arabic, Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyad ...

. In 2017,

Ceylon Biscuits Limited Ceylon Biscuits Limited (branded CBL, commonly called Munchee) is a Sri Lankan food manufacturer, the maker of Munchee biscuits and one of the oldest biscuit makers in Sri Lanka. The company owns 60% of the domestic market share in Sri Lanka. Hi ...

acquired a license to operate Spar brand in Sri Lanka as Spar Lanka. This is a joint venture of Ceylon Biscuits Limited and SPAR Group Ltd, South Africa. They opened the first store in

Thalawathugoda Thalawathugoda ( si, තලවතුගොඩ, ta, தலவத்துகொட) is a suburb of Colombo. It is located approximately from the city centre of Colombo, adjacent to Battaramulla and Pelawatte on the Borella-Kottawa Road, bord ...

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

. The plan is to open 50 outlets in the country by 2023. In 2020, there were more than 13,500 SPAR stores in 48 countries.

Shop types

In most, but not all countries, SPAR operates shops of different types and sub-brands: SPAR Express, SPAR Neighbourhood, EuroSPAR and InterSPAR. Szinvapark

; EuroSPAR/SuperSPAR The EuroSPAR name is used in Europe and SuperSPAR in South Africa. These are mid-sized supermarkets. They are designed to fit in a niche between convenience shops and traditional supermarkets. ; InterSPAR These are

hypermarket A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...

s and compete directly against major international chains such as

Real Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (201 ...

Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, wh ...

, and

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

. ; KwikSPAR KwikSPAR (only found in South Africa) are a smaller quick stop shop for convenience. They are larger than the conventional SPAR Express but smaller than the normal SPAR. These stores tend to have extended trading hours, some even being 24-hour convenience stores. ;SPAR Express Spar Express Wattens

This is the smallest type of shop. They are designed for small sites and filling station forecourts, airports and train stations. ; SPAR Drive-Thru There was a

drive-through A drive-through or drive-thru (a sensational spelling of the word ''through''), is a type of take-out service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. The format was pioneered in the Unite ...

SPAR on the Cliftonville Road in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

. This has now been converted to a

Centra Centra is a convenience shop chain that operates throughout Ireland. The chain operates as a symbol group owned by Musgrave Group, the food wholesaler, meaning the stores are all owned by individual franchisees. The chain has three different f ...

shop, and retained the drive-through for a while afterwards, but now no longer has one. ; SPAR Gourmet The Austrian Spar Group has around 50 supermarkets branded SPAR Gourmet, mainly in and around Vienna. They are smaller supermarkets that specialize in foods, with a reduced range of other household goods. They originate from the acquisition of retail units from the

Julius Meinl Julius Meinl International (german: Julius Meinl AG, Meinl-Gruppe), also known simply as Julius Meinl, is a manufacturer and retailer of coffee, gourmet foods and other grocery products. The company is based in Vienna, Austria. It is named aft ...

coffee and tea chain in 2000.

International statistics (2021)

* 48 Countries * 255 Distribution Centres * 13,623 Stores * €41.2 Billion Total Sales * 410,000 SPAR Colleagues * 7.5M² retail sales area * 14.5 Million customers per day

Notes

References

External links

* *
SPAR International - Annual Report 2019
{{Authority control Companies based in Amsterdam Convenience stores Defunct retail companies of Romania Dutch brands Multinational companies headquartered in the Netherlands Purchasing consortia Retail companies established in 1932 Supermarkets of Albania Supermarkets of Austria Supermarkets of Croatia Supermarkets of Hungary Supermarkets of India Supermarkets of Northern Ireland Supermarkets of Slovenia Supermarkets of Spain Supermarkets of the Czech Republic Supermarkets of the Netherlands Supermarkets of the Republic of Ireland Supermarkets of the United Kingdom Supermarkets of Ukraine Supermarkets of Pakistan Supermarkets of Portugal Dutch companies established in 1932