Albert Heijn
Netherlands
EU
Albert Heijn is a leading supermarket brand of the Netherlands, run by Albert Heijn B.V. from Zaandam. It began as a single family grocery store more than 135 years ago, and in...
European Supermarkets & Discounters
ALDI Nord
Germany
EU
ALDI Nord is one of the two independent ALDI companies. It is based in Essen and runs discount supermarkets in Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. The group...
ALDI SÜD
Germany
EU
ALDI SÜD is the second of the two independent ALDI companies. Its headquarters is in Mülheim an der Ruhr, and it runs about 2,000 stores in southern and western Germany. The group...
Biedronka
Poland
EU
Biedronka (Polish for "ladybird") is the largest discount supermarket chain in Poland. It was founded in 1995 and has its head office in Kostrzyn near Poznań. The chain is owned by the...
Carrefour
France
EU
Carrefour is a French retail group with its registered office in Massy near Paris. It opened the first hypermarket in France in 1963 and launched Carrefour-brand products in 1976. According to its...
E.Leclerc
France
EU
E.Leclerc is a French retail movement that runs supermarkets and hypermarkets as independent, owner-operated businesses under a common banner. It was founded in the late 1940s in Brittany by Édouard Leclerc, and...
EDEKA
Germany
EU
EDEKA is a German retail cooperative with its headquarters in Hamburg, founded in Leipzig in 1907. According to the EDEKA Verbund, it was formed more than 115 years ago and brings together...
Esselunga
Italy
EU
Esselunga is an Italian supermarket chain operating in the north and centre of the country. Its story starts in 1957, when the first Italian supermarket opened in Viale Regina Giovanna in Milan...
Kaufland
Germany
EU
Kaufland is a German hypermarket chain from Neckarsulm and part of the Schwarz Group, like Lidl. The first Kaufland store opened in Neckarsulm in 1984. The online marketplace kaufland.de is a separate...
Lidl
Germany
EU
Lidl is a discount supermarket chain from Neckarsulm in Germany. It is run by Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG and belongs to the Schwarz Group, which also owns Kaufland. The first German...
Mercadona
Spain
EU
Mercadona is a Spanish supermarket chain founded in 1977 by the Cárnicas Roig group. It is a family-owned company, headquartered in Albalat dels Sorells near Valencia, and the Roig family is named...
Migros
Switzerland
Migros is Switzerland's largest retailer and supermarket chain, organised as a federation of regional cooperatives with headquarters in Zurich. It was founded in 1925. At the end of 2025 more than 2.3...
REWE
Germany
EU
REWE is the supermarket chain of the REWE Group, a retail and travel cooperative with its seat in Cologne, founded in 1927. According to the group's 2025 results, REWE Group employed about...
Tesco
United Kingdom
Tesco is a leading supermarket group of the United Kingdom, a listed company on the London Stock Exchange with its head office in Welwyn Garden City, England. In its annual report for...
Did we miss one? Feel free to submit a suggestion!
Submit SuggestionFood retail in Europe is dominated by companies that are headquartered in Europe: the largest chains in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Poland all come from the continent. This page lists large supermarket and discount chains with their headquarters in Europe and a network across a country or several countries.
European supermarket chains at a glance
| Chain | Country | Presence (company data) |
|---|---|---|
| Lidl | Germany | about 12,900 stores worldwide (2026) |
| Kaufland | Germany | more than 1,600 stores in 8 countries (2026) |
| ALDI Nord | Germany | more than 5,500 stores in 8 countries (2026) |
| ALDI SÜD | Germany | about 6,520 stores in 11 countries (2026) |
| EDEKA | Germany | 10,871 stores, cooperative (2025) |
| REWE | Germany | REWE Group in 21 countries (2025) |
| Carrefour | France | more than 15,000 stores in more than 40 countries (2024) |
| E.Leclerc | France | 766 stores plus 767 drive points (2026) |
| Mercadona | Spain | 1,598 stores in Spain, 76 in Portugal (2026) |
| Albert Heijn | Netherlands | Netherlands and Belgium |
| Tesco | United Kingdom | 3,724 stores in 5 countries (Feb 2026) |
| Migros | Switzerland | 721 locations (end 2025) |
| Esselunga | Italy | 196 stores in 8 regions (Dec 2025) |
| Biedronka | Poland | 3,882 stores (end 2025) |
Ownership models
The list mixes very different owners. EDEKA, REWE, Migros and E.Leclerc are cooperatives or movements of independent merchants. ALDI Nord and ALDI SÜD belong to family foundations, Mercadona and Esselunga to families, and the Schwarz Group, which owns Lidl and Kaufland, is privately held. Tesco, Carrefour, Albert Heijn (through Ahold Delhaize) and Jerónimo Martins, the owner of Biedronka, are listed on stock exchanges.
Online shopping and delivery
Online grocery shopping exists at many of these chains, but not in every country and often only in selected regions. Drive pick-up (E.Leclerc), delivery vans (REWE, Albert Heijn, Tesco) and quick-delivery services (Biedronka, Tesco Whoosh) are examples.
What is missing
US chains such as Walmart or Costco play almost no role in European food retail and are not listed. The chains shown here are listed with their stores only; their online marketplaces, such as kaufland.de, appear in online marketplaces.