Juana Roig, CEO of Mercadona Online and daughter of Juan Roig, founder of the supermarket chain, spoke about her professional career, the growth of the digital business and the weight of her surname in her career. The executive acknowledged that her status as the daughter of the Spanish businessman is an inseparable part of her journey.
"The most relevant thing about my career to be here is being my parents' daughter," Roig said during the interview. She studied at ESADE, worked at Mango and Inditex, was purchasing manager for wines at Mercadona for four and a half years and also managed a jewelry store before taking over the direction of the online channel.
When speaking about the particular position she occupies within the company, she was even more direct: "You have the label. I know that what I have done is because of my surname and in this bubble you take a little advantage of that power." Her arrival in the technology business, however, was accompanied by a learning process: when she took over the leadership she had no prior experience in technology.
A separate operation from the traditional business
Mercadona Online was born as a spin-off to rethink the company's digital business from scratch. According to Roig, the previous project had security problems and was concentrated on the online store, without adequately contemplating the logistics necessary to prepare and distribute orders.
The new structure allowed working with different dynamics from those of physical stores. While in traditional Mercadona there is a formal dress code, in the online area one can work in jeans and iterative and lean methodologies are used. Roig emphasized that the model based on five components is maintained: customer, worker, supplier, society and capital.
Currently, Mercadona Online closed the year with 325 million euros in revenue. If the old platform that still operates in some areas is included, the online channel reaches between 540 and 550 million euros. It represents between 1.7% and 2% of Mercadona's total sales.
With 2,000 workers in the "hives"
The operation combines 160 people in offices with around 2,000 in the logistics centers, known internally as "colmenas" (hives). These are warehouses exclusively for online orders that can reach 10,000 square meters.
The company processes between 8,000 and 9,000 daily orders. The preparation and delivery are handled in-house, as is the infrastructure: they have their own fleet, staff and in-house technological development. In the hives, order pickers and delivery drivers work alongside specialists such as bakers, fishmongers and workers trained to carve ham.
The business is also designed with a specific premise: not to grow at any cost. Preparing and delivering each order costs more than 20 euros, while Mercadona charges a flat fee of 7.21 euros and requires a minimum purchase of 50 euros. The average order value is around 140 euros.
"If we don't make money on an order, we are not interested in growing at all costs," Roig explained. The executive also pointed out that the main competitor of the online channel is Mercadona's own physical store. Looking ahead, Roig anticipated that the goal is for Mercadona Online to represent approximately 5% of the company's total sales.
