THE LARGEST WORLDWIDE FOOD RETAILERS

This is the second annual SN list of the world's top food retailers, prepared in association with CIES: The Food Business Forum in Paris. Companies on the list have at least 50% of their sales in food and food-related products.

r example, Fred Meyer Inc. is not on the list because its most recent acquisitions were not completed until March 1998. Without these, its sales last year were $5.5 billion. But the results of the mergers are that the company is estimated to generate annual sales of about $15 billion.

Wal-Mart tops this year's list as the world's largest food retailer with total sales last year of $118 billion. Its total sales are included because all of Wal-Mart's stores are increasingly carrying a large percentage of food products and it is becoming difficult to break out the exact percentage of its sales that relate to food. The same applies to the No. 2 company on the list, Metro AG, which operates hypermarkets, electronics stores and other formats.

Major shifts on the list result primarily from acquisitions during the year. Metro bought Makro last year; Rewe leapt to third from 13th based on its purchase of Billa in Austria; Intermarche bought Spar Handels AG; Ahold moved to 13th position from 16th on the basis of its purchases in South America and the Far East; and Promodes moved to seventh from 18th because its results now include both company-owned and franchised stores.

Spar, which was ranked fourth on the 1996 list, has been omitted because most of it is a loose confederation of stores owned by its individual country members rather than a central organization.

Company 1997 Sales Number Country

Rank in U.S. billions of Stores Countries of Operation Top Executive

1 Wal-Mart 1 Argentina, Brazil, Canada, U.S. 118.0 3,397 China, Germany, Indonesia,

David Glass

1Mexico, Puerto Rico, U.S.

2 Metro AG Group 2 Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany 36.0 3,397 France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, 2Poland, Portugal, Romania,

Spain, U.K Erwin Conradi

.

3 Rewe Austria, Czech Republic,

Germany 34.2 11,613 France, Germany, Hungary,

Italy, Poland, Spain, Slovakia

Hans Reischl

4 Tengelmann (c) Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany 33.7 * 7,645 Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, U.S.

Karl-Erivan Haub

5 Aldi (b) (c) Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Germany 32.9 (e) * 4,142 the Netherlands, U.K., U.S.

Theo Albrecht

6 Intermarche 3 Belgium, France, Germany, France 32.5 3,819 (e) Italy, Portugal, Spain Pierre Gourgein

7 Promodes Belgium, Dubai, France, Germany, France 28.6 * 4,921 Greece, Italy, Mauritius, Morocco, Taiwan, Turkey, Portugal, Spain

Paul-Louis Halley

8 Carrefour 4 Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, France France, Hong Kong,

28.3 308 Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal,

Singapore, South Korea, Spain,

Taiwan, Thailand,

Turkey Daniel Bernard

9 Edeka/AVA (b) (c) Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany France,

27.8 * 5,567 Germany, the Netherlands,

Poland Kurt Lindemann

10 Leclerc (b) (c)

France 27.0 552 France, Spain, Poland, Portugal Edouard Leclerc

11 Tesc Czech Republic, France, Hungary, U.K. 26.9 782 Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, U.K.

Terry Leahy

12 Kroger Co.

U.S. 26.6 2,223 U.S. Joseph A. Pichler

13 Ahold Brazil, China, Czech Republic the Netherlands 25.1 3,098 Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, U.S. Cees van der Hoeven

14 Ito-Yokado (c) Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan 24.9 17,000 Denmark, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Norway,

Philippines, Puerto Rico,

South Korea,

Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, U.K., U.S. Toshimi Suzuki

15 Auchan Argentina, France, Hungary, Italy, France 24.5 201 Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland,

Portugal, Spain, Thailand, U.S.

Gerard Mullez

16 Sainsbury

U.K. 23.8 802 France, U.K., U.S. Dino Adriano

17 Safeway

U.S. 22.5 1,368 Canada, U.S. Steven Burd

18 American Stores

U.S. 19.1 1,557 U.S. Victor Lund

19 Daiei

Japan 19.1 (e) 6,320 (c China, Japan, U.S. Isao Nakauchi

20 Supervalu (a)

U.S 17.2 325 U.S. Michael W. Wright

21 Fleming

U.S. 15.4 277 U.S. Robert E. Stauth

22 Albertson's .

U.S. 14.7 892 U.S Gary Michael

23 Delhaize "Le Lion" Belgium, Czech Republic, Belgium 13.8 1,816 France, Greece, Indonesia,

Thailand, U.S. Guy de Vaucleroy

24 Lidl & Schwarz (b) Austria Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany 13.8 * 2,770 France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, U.K. Richard Meyer

25 Winn-Dixie

U.S. 13.2 1,174 U.S.A. Dano Davis

1 Acquisition of Wertkauf Hypermarkets in December 1997. 2 Following the Makro acquisition (effective since Jan. 1, 1998), the Metro AG Group expects net sales of roughly DM 92 billion for FY 1998, of which DM 30.7 billion is from the acquisition. 3 Including Spar Handels AG 4 Hypermarkets only Notes: Figures excluding tax, converted from local currency at year-end 1997 exchange rates. Data from Companies/Annual Reports for FY 1997 except: (a) Data from Press. (b) Data from M M Eurodata. (c) Data for 1996. (e): Estimate. * Including VAT.