IELKA: At 160 million the expected additional cost in 2021 in supermarkets
85% of retailers believe that the Covid-19 crises will last at least until the end of 2021, while 97% believe that the market and the economy will be affected by the crises by the end of 2021 or even more and at least 70% by the summer of 2022 (Figure 1) according to the IELKA research in retail FMCG trends.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Figure 1: Estimation of pandemic duration
It is also clear a record of psychological exhaustion for both the public and businesses. 85% believe that the citizens are tired of the prolonged measures and 51% that the business staff is tired of the ongoing measures. 2 in 3 executives believe that changes in measures, such as changes in store opening hours or permitted sales categories, are very common. However, 4 out of 5 executives believe that the high price can be accepted in order to deal with the pandemic.
Figure 2: Views on the pandemic
The sources of costs
According to a relevant study by IELKA, it is estimated that the total additional cost for organized food retail for 2020 exceeded 160 million euros.
- The largest part of cost comes from the additional labor costs, which are already estimated at 130 million euros. The main source of these costs is the new recruitments made by the chains.
- The second largest cost category is home delivery, which is estimated at around € 14 million.
- The third category is packaging materials, it is estimated that they are already worth over 12 million euros and include from plexiglass for cash registers, masks for staff, disinfectants, to coronavirus test for staff.
- Finally, the development, expansion and operation of online stores is estimated at an additional cost of 8 million Euros
Figure 3: Operating costs