With the growth in stores and distribution centres, our number of employees also increased. By the end of the year, nearly 52,000 people were directly employed by Action. During the year, we created 5,786 new jobs. 

Despite the COVID-19 measures, we were able to organize nine safe store day events. Store days are our annual events for all store managers in different countries to learn from each other, to celebrate success, to thank everyone for their hard work and to jointly look ahead. In the Netherlands, Germany and France, this included a studio broadcast from the country management team. In 2021, we established some key learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerated our digital and sustainability agendas. Store closings forced us to accelerate our digital offer and resulted in incredible teamwork to develop and launch new digital tools like Click & Collect, Click & Meet and the Action App. The resilience of our people and our culture were also put to the test. Without the dedication of our people and their incredible teamwork, we could not have dealt with all the COVID-19 related changes across our markets.

The continued COVID-19 pandemic required us to remain agile. It also required perseverance and flexibility from our customers, employees and partners. As mentioned throughout the Update2021, caring for each other continued to be an even larger priority than before.

Net sales for the financial year ending 2 January 2022 amounted to € 6,834 million, compared to €5,569 million in 2020 (on a 52-week basis). Despite the periods of major disruption due to COVID-19 related restrictions, primarily in the beginning and at the end of the year, Action was able to grow its revenues by 23%. Like-for-like (LFL) sales growth came in at 11%, with France, Belgium and Poland in particular experiencing strong sales.

Operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and adjusting items – and on a pre-IFRS 16 basis) increased from € 609 million (on a 52-week basis) in 2020 to € 828 million in 2021. During 2021, we invested in our organisational and logistics infrastructure to support the strong growth of our customer proposition, store network and expansion into new countries. We also continued our investment in digital, which increased our online reach and fanbase and enabled us to engage with our customers, even when our stores were (partially) closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

In 2021, we opened our tenth distribution centre in Bratislava (Slovakia), which can service our existing and new stores in Austria. Our new distribution centre in Bierún (Poland) started operations in November and will eventually service 200 stores in Poland and the Czech Republic. We also opened a new cross dock in Tilburg (the Netherlands) to supply our distribution centres more efficiently. Furthermore, we were able to reduce the store opening process from eight to five days.

For Action, 2021 was another year of growth. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to create value for our customers, our employees and the economy by offering low prices and surprising products. Throughout the year, we added 267 stores, which brought the year-end total to 1,983 stores across nine countries. We also rebuilt, relocated or enlarged 50 of our stores. France continues to be the leading market for Action, with 653 stores at the end of the year. During 2021 we opened our first seven stores in Italy, and we celebrated other key milestones: our first store in Prague, (Czech Republic), 10 stores in Luxembourg, 80 stores across all regions in Austria, 200 stores in Belgium, 400 stores in Germany and 400 stores in the Netherlands.

• Ziki Bamboo Boxers received the Private Label Manufacturers Association Salute to Excellence award in the Men’s Care Category.
  
  
• Zenova Sunmilk Sensitive SPF50 was rated as Best Buy Award from the Dutch consumer organisation Consumentenbond – an award for reasonably priced products that meet strict quality standards.
  
  
• Alvira Micellar Cleansing Water won the Editors’ Choice in the Belgian Beauty Award 2021.
  
  
• Walfort Bike Repair Set, Max&More automatic Kohl pencil and Caffe Palazzo lungo coffee cups were awarded Product of the Year in Belgium.
  
  
• Superfinn degreaser, Palazzo coffee cups Lungo, Comfibeds hypoallergenic pillows, Pure Soft tissues, Spargo power sponges and Spectrum 2in1 alkyd wood paint were awarded Product of the Year in the Netherlands.

We are very proud that, as in previous years, in 2021, our customers awarded us with top ratings in the “Retailer of the Year” competition.

Across our private labels and categories, we always look out for new product development opportunities. We keep our assortment up to date, but also surprising through new designs.

In 2021, we launched two new private labels, taking the total to 73. Within the household category, Cascata is our new brand offering bathroom products, like shower heads and bathmats. Our Roseland brand offers products like headphones and speakers within the multimedia category.

We also updated and improved the look and feel of three existing private labels. The upgrade of our bestselling brand Spectrum for paint and accessories emphasizes our focus on high quality and supports our customers in finding the specific paint (accessory) they need. The Christmas Moments brand was relaunched with a more festive design. The Home Essentials appliances have improved, with more appealing photography. Lastly, we extended the range of LSC Smart Connect with outdoor products.

In the autumn, our radio campaign focused on our low prices and major brands. Other campaigns focused on specific products including basic textiles and our LSC smart lighting assortment. In the Netherlands, a launch campaign boosted the uptake of the new Action app. For our digital channels, we have increased our cooperation with Facebook and Google to further improve our campaign content.

Our summer campaign highlighted the assortment we offer to enjoy the season closer to home. Similarly, our autumn campaign focused on enjoying time at home, with low-priced products for the kitchen, being creative and treating yourself. Our Christmas and gifting campaigns showcased Action as the one-stop-shop to buy presents for everyone, adding to the positive holiday feeling.

To drive awareness, we launched several communications campaigns in 2021. They help to build our brand image on value for money, our wide range of products, reliability, sustainability and providing our customers with a smile.

We expanded our communication in 2021, to better inform our customers of our product quality and sustainability efforts. To connect weekly to millions of customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, we leveraged our integrated communication calendar using email newsletters, leaflets, social media, instore channels, radio, internal communications, PR and our website.

Across our communications channels, our green thumbs continue to highlight our increasing range of sustainable products. They provide information about certification labels and other relevant knowledge. Our customers reacted positively to these green thumbs.

During Fairtrade Week in October, we announced our collaboration with Fair Trade and our ambition to offer Fairtrade chocolate, both across our own and Fairtrade’s communication channels.

Our digital presence (website, social media and newsletters) kept us connected with our customers throughout the year. We shared inspiring content, including decoration ideas, DIY tutorials and product recommendations. We continued to communicate with our customers on popular pandemic-related topics, featuring our essential assortment and themes like hygiene, home office, crafting, baking, home spa, health and sports more prominently. Through independent social media fan groups, hundreds of thousands of customers connected to share inspiring ideas and experiences. We also continued to provide clear and functional communication about store opening hours and safety measures. In Belgium, our flyer was awarded Best Flyer of the Year for the Home, DIY and Pet category. In the Netherlands, our weekly flyer was awarded the Best Flyer Award.

In 2021, we rolled out self-scan checkouts to 65 additional stores in the Netherlands and Belgium, bringing the total number of stores with these checkouts to 196. We also started to test self-scan checkouts in all other countries.

In line with national COVID-19 related regulations, our stores were subject to various restrictions, including store closures. When our stores were open, we took measures to provide a safe environment for our customers and our employees.

To continue serving our customers when stores were closed, we rolled out the Click & Collect service in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Austria. This enabled customers to select articles online and pick them up at the store. In February 2021, when all Action stores in the Netherlands were closed, “Action Click & Collect” ranked in the top 3 of most searched for phrases on Google. To deal with the massive number of phone calls and emails concerning our Click & Collect service, our store personnel in Germany and the Netherlands showed great flexibility by joining our customer service team to reduce the response time, making it possible to rapidly scale up and maintain our regular service level.

In the Netherlands, we also launched an e-commerce shopping pilot for a limited selection of products. Customers responded very positively to this new way of shopping. The pilot runs on our current processes and systems, based on the existing workflows and IT system infrastructure.

Everything we do is designed to deliver more value to our customers. Each week our stores were open, we welcomed 12 million customers on average. Another 6.4 million customers visited action.com each week. During lockdowns, this number increased to nearly 8 million customers. There are many reasons to shop at Action – some customers are looking for bargains, while others enjoy treasure hunting. What they all have in common is their love for our surprising products and incredibly low prices.

Despite COVID-19-related measures and restrictions, customer research shows that we managed to keep our customer satisfaction level stable.

In 2021, we delivered value to more customers than ever before, resulting from our surprising product range and the expansion of our store network. The continued COVID-19 pandemic required us to remain agile and fast-track digital innovations like the Action App and our Click & Collect service. It also required tremendous perseverance and flexibility from our customers, employees and partners. Caring for each other continued to be a priority.

Content ACTION IN 2021