"Portugal has started to add and this year it will add more. We are very satisfied", said Juan Roig, who admitted that, however, the result in the national market is still lower than company goals.

Mercadona, which opened its first store in Portugal in 2019, did not make a loss for the first time in the national market in 2023, a year in which it also did not make money, after losses of 50 million euros in 2022, according to company data.

In 2024, Mercadona sold 1.778 billion euros in Portugal, 27% more than in 2023, but below the target of 1.9 billion euros that it had assumed a year ago.

Mercadona closed 2024 with 60 stores in Portugal (11 more than in 2023) and invested 219 million euros in the country last year.

For this year, Juan Roig reiterated the previously announced objective of opening 10 more stores in Portugal, including the first in the Lisbon district, with a planned investment of 157 million euros.

Mercadona expects, at the same time, to double its profits in Portugal this year, to 14 million euros, said the company's president.

There are currently Mercadona supermarkets in 12 districts of Portugal and the company has two logistics centers in the country, in Vila Nova de Gaia and Almeirim, the latter being the largest of the 17 it has in the Iberian Peninsula.

Juan Roig stated that the outlook for the national market is to "continue to develop supermarkets", immediately, and "more actively", in Lisbon, and then, "in the coming years", in the south of Portugal, namely in the Algarve.

"What we need is to be more Portuguese," he said, referring to Mercadona's desire and need to have more national products in supermarkets and improve relations with local suppliers.

The company makes 85% of its purchases from suppliers in Portugal and Spain, said Juan Roig.

Mercadona closed 2024 with 7,000 workers in Portugal (1,700 more than at the end of 2023) and, according to the company, last year it exceeded 1 billion euros in investment since it began operating in the country.

Juan Roig assured that, for now, Mercadona, which is the leader in Spain with a market share of 28.2% (0.7% more than a year ago), does not intend to expand into a third country.

The president of Mercadona highlighted that the economy of Portugal and Spain is experiencing a good moment and is doing "very well" and that the company's objective is to consolidate its presence and activity in both markets.