Press Release - January 2026

• After growing 3% in 2024, provisional data indicate that turnover by food wholesalers to the hospitality industry stood at over €8.1 billion in 2025, up 2% year-over-year, extending the continued slowing in growth.

• The top five companies jointly account for 18% of sector revenue; the figure rises only to 27.5% when the top ten are considered, which underscores the sector's continued fragmentation.

• INFORMA's DBK Sectoral Observatory recently published these insights in the 'Food Wholesalers for Horeca' Sectoral Report.

Madrid, 29 January 2026.- According to INFORMA's (Cesce's subsidiary) DBK Sectoral Observatory—a leading provider of business, financial, sectoral, and marketing information in Spain and Portugal—turnover generated by food wholesalers to the hospitality industry reached €7.95 billion in 2024, up 3.2% from the previous year. This moderate growth continued in 2025, with an estimated turnover of €8.11 billion, up 2.0% from 2024.

These increases reflected a slowdown compared with previous fiscal years, when double-digit growth was recorded. Lower momentum in out-of-home consumption, together with slower growth in tourism activity and prices, resulted in a smaller increase in turnover.

Wholesalers channelled around 35% of the total value of food and drink purchases made by the hospitality industry in 2024. This percentage rose to 49% for drinks and stood at 28% for food products.

Turnover at Cash & Carry outlets also saw slower growth from 2024, reaching €4.84 billion in that fiscal year after growing 3.5%. In 2025, provisional data point to a value of €5.0 billion, representing a 3.3% increase.

In January 2024, around 35,500 food wholesale companies were operating in Spain, considering companies that direct their sales to hospitality establishments and other channels. Most companies are small, resulting in a low degree of supply concentration. Thus, in 2024 the top five operators in terms of turnover from sales to the hospitality channel jointly accounted for 17.7% of this business.

As for the supply of Cash & Carry outlets, at the end of 2024 it comprised around 760 outlets across the Iberian market. This business features several chains of a certain size that capture a large share of the market, resulting in notable supply concentration. In this way, the top five operators accounted for 63% of total sales in that year.

Data Synthesis