Business

　　商業報道

　　Mercadona

　　梅爾卡多納

　　Spanish aisles

　　西班牙走廊

　　Why a low-price retailer is thriving

　　為何廉價零售如此蓬勃

　　FEW domestic firms are prospering in crisis-racked Spain, but Mercadona is.

　　在經歷經濟危機的創傷之后，西班牙很少有幾家國內企業能夠恢復興旺發展，然而梅爾卡多納除外。

　　Spain's largest supermarket by sales has enjoyed double-digit growth for most of the pastdecade.

　　過去十年中，西班牙最大的銷售型超市在大部分時間呈兩位數增長。

　　When Juan Roig, the chairman, took over in 1981, Mercadona had only eight shops, all in Valencia.

　　1981年，胡安.羅伊上任主席，任職之初，梅爾卡多納僅有8間店鋪，并且全部都在巴倫西亞。

　　Today it has 1,310 and annual sales of 16.5 billion $23.8 billion.

　　而今，它有1310家連鎖店，年銷售額達到165億歐元合238億美金。

　　Spain's economic troubles seem to have made it stronger.

　　西班牙的經濟問題似乎反而讓它變的更為強大。

　　Profits dipped in 2009, but surged again by 47% in 2010 after some forceful cost-cutting.

　　2009年，經濟效益下滑，但是在2010年完成了一些強有力的成本削減后，又激增了47%。

　　Mercadona's strength is low prices.

　　梅爾卡多納的優勢在低價。

　　The family-owned chain does not fritter away cash on advertising.

　　家族式連鎖不會在廣告費用上造成任何浪費。

　　It mercilessly squeezes the suppliers of its own-brand products.

　　它不遺余力地要求供應商做自己的品牌的產品。

　　These suppliers, of which there are about 100, put up with Mercadona's squeezing because they have a long-term relationship with the company and have grown with it.

　　而將近100家的供應商為了與這家公司長期合作，也為了得到長遠的發展，不得不接受受梅爾卡多納的要求。

　　Since 2009 Mercadona has shaved 2.2 billion of costs from its products, often with simple adjustments such as reducing packaging.

　　自2009年以來，梅爾卡多納利用自有品牌削減了22億歐元的成本，并且不時地做些簡單的調整，如減少包裝成本等措施。

　　Tight relationships with its suppliers foster innovation.

　　與供應商的無間合作促使革新。

　　For example, sticking a plastic lid on a large tin of tuna made it easier to open and increased its sales by 60% in 2010.

　　比如說，2010年的時候，在一大罐金槍魚罐頭上使用塑料蓋子可以使之更容易開啟，從而讓這個產品的銷售量增加了60%。

　　Even so, Mercadona does not skimp on technology or logistics.

　　即便如此，梅爾卡多納在技術或者后勤方面絕不偷工減料。

　　It was the first retailer in Spain to use bar-code scanners.

　　它是西班牙第一家使用條形碼掃描器的零售店。

　　And it owns a fully automated logistics warehouse just outside Madrid.

　　并且就在馬德里附近，它有一個全自動化管理的后勤倉庫。

　　Robot arms stack goods in crates like a game of Tetris.

　　機械臂把貨物像疊俄羅斯方塊一樣壘起來。

　　Mercadona is unique in several ways, says Zeynep Ton of Harvard University, who wrote a case study on the chain.

　　梅爾卡多納在很多方面都是獨一無二的，哈佛大學的澤伊內普.托恩說道，他寫了一個關于連鎖的個案研究。

　　Its 63,500 employees are on permanent contracts with bonuses, work regular hours and receive 20 times more training than the staff of an average American retailer.

　　它有63,500名員工都是終身簽約包括獎金，按規律時間上班并接受培訓，而培訓次數可比一般的美國零售商的員工接受的培訓要多20次。

　　This makes them more productive: sales per Mercadona employee were 18% higher in 2008 than at other Spanish supermarkets. Staff turnover is only 4%.

　　這使得他們生產效率更高：2008年，平均每個梅爾卡多納員工的銷售額比西班牙其他超市的銷售額高出18%。而員工流動率一年僅有4%。

　　Employees constantly gather feedback from shoppers, whom they refer to, accuratelyenough, as bosses.

　　員工們經常會收集購物者的反饋，而他們，準確的說，是指老板們。

　　Shops are designed to make shopping quick and easy.

　　商店就被設計成讓人們更快更便捷地購物。

　　The selection is smaller than in other supermarkets, especially after Mercadona took theunpopular decision of eliminating 1,000 products from the shelves in 2009.

　　梅爾卡多納的選擇區比其他超市的要小，特別是2009年以后，因為梅爾卡多納把1000種不受歡迎的產品下架了。

　　Own-label items such as Deliplus a line of cosmetics account for 38 % of sales.

　　像Deliplus化妝品牌系列這樣的自定商標貨物占銷售額的38%。

　　Mercadona products were ranked number one, in terms of value for money, in a recent survey of 5,200 households by TNS, a market researcher.

　　特恩斯的一名市場調查員對5200戶家庭進行調查，在最近的一次調查中，梅爾卡多納的產品根據經濟價值位列第一。

　　There is still plenty of room to grow at home.

　　但是這個超市依然有很多發展空間。

　　Mercadona accounts for 13.1 % of the floor space in Spanish supermarkets, which makes it the third-largest chain in the country, after France's Carrefour and the co-operative Eroski.

　　梅爾卡多納占西班牙超市面積達13.1%，它達到了全國大型連鎖的第三名，僅次于法國家樂福和聯合以羅斯基。

　　It aims to enter the Italian or French market next year, probably through a small acquisition.

　　明年，梅爾卡多納計劃進駐意大利或者法國市場，很可能通過小型收購這個渠道。

　　Mr Roig doubts that the Mercadona model can simply be copied abroad. We must learn everything from everyone, he says.

　　羅伊先生對梅爾卡多納經營模式在國外市場的簡單套用表示不確定。我們必須從每個人身上學習所有的東西，他這樣說道。

　　Unlike most Spanish bosses, Mr Roig doesn't mince his words.

　　與西班牙大多數的老板不同，羅伊先生不會裝腔作勢。

　　Earlier this year he said the only good thing about 2011 for Spain was that it would be better than 2012.

　　今年年初，他談及有關2011年對西班牙有好處的唯一一點是，會比2012更好。

　　It will be worse if the Spanish people do not take up the challenge of transforming Spain, he says, by which he means bringing its colossal welfare state under control.

　　如果西班牙人民不去挑戰改變西班牙，那么情況會變的更糟，他說道，而他的意思是把它的臃腫的福利體系帶入正軌。

　　Mr Roig believes that Spain has great human capital.

　　羅伊先生相信西班牙有極好的人力資源。

　　That is true, but Spain's youth unemployment rate-a staggering 45%-suggests that much of this talent is being squandered.

　　確實如此，但是西班牙的青年不在業率達令人驚訝的45%，這表明大部分的資源都被浪費了。

　　The protesters in the plazas complain that Spain's politicians have lost touch with how ordinary people live.

　　廣場抗議的人群控訴說，西班牙政府和普通人的生活有所隔膜。

　　That is not a mistake a supermarket can afford to make.

　　而這個失誤則不是超市可以解決的。