Aldi sign

Planet Retail's Global Retail Rankings for 2008 have been released this week, showing that the top 20 grocery retailers generated US$1.95tn of sales last year, up 10.5 per cent year-on-year and representing 25 per cent of the global market as a whole.

Particularly strong performers last year were the discounters, according to the report, with Germany's Schwarz Group moving from ninth to fifth place in the rankings after recording US$86.1bn in banner sales.

Fellow German discounter Aldi also maintained strong growth, with banner sales up to US$73.5bn from its 9,012 stores.

Leading the pack once again was US retail giant Wal-Mart, with sales of US$434.7bn from 7,657 outlets, followed by Carrefour in France (US$161bn), Germany's Metro (US$115.9bn) and Tesco in the UK (US$109bn).

'Despite these difficult times, the world's largest retailers continue to go from strength to strength,' said Planet Retail's grocery research manager Natalie Berg. 'With funds for investment and high levels of buying power, the global giants have capitalised on the current scenario to boost their presence around the world.'

Visit the Planet Retail website for the full top 20 list