Grocery delivery attracts foreign players
The local online grocery delivery market is attracting the interest of new players, looking to claim a share in this expanding sector.
Besides online food delivery companies, such as Wolt, eFood and Box.gr that have turned to this sector through cooperation with supermarkets or local stores (or by forming their own e-stores), there are new entrants who have tried such ventures abroad.
According to the Convert Group, the share of supermarket spending Greeks made online last year quadrupled in value terms to 1.8% of total spending on groceries. Still, this pales in comparison to the share this sector has in Great Britain, amounting to 16% of total grocery spending.
Sources say that a Greek group, founded by an entrepreneur who a few years ago created his own company in London, is attempting to construct its own online supermarket. It has reportedly already raised part of the funding secured from strategic players in the sector abroad as well as from major international investors.
The company’s goal is to create a platform where consumers can order their groceries and it will control the entire supply chain, from distribution to delivery within 20 minutes, by acquiring its own fleet and about 20 storage places (dark stores) in Athens. This end-to-end model is close to what Wolt introduced on April 2, through Wolt Market and the creation of its first dark store in the Athens suburb of Neos Cosmos.
Kathimerini also understands that the newly formed fast delivery startup Jokr by German entrepreneur Ralf Wenzel (founder of FoodPanda) is interested in entering the Greek market. However this is unlikely to constitute a priority, as for now the corporation has focused on larger markets. According to US website Techcrunch, the firm is active in Latin America and is expanding to North America, as the day before yesterday it launched its service in New York.
In the context of this battle, local player eFood market is about to strengthen its strategic partnership with Kiosky’s of the Mouchalis group. At the same time, Ferto, a smaller grocery delivery app founded in the pandemic, is this month completing a funding round so as to strengthen its presence in last-mile grocery delivery.
