Sonae's International Sales Climb 45% Past €2.3 Billion in 2025 — Maia Holding Adds 1,070 Stores Abroad, Pushes Foreign Revenue Above 20% of the Group for the First Time and Books €247 Million of Attributable Net Profit

Sonae, the Maia-based holding that owns Continente, Worten, Wells, MO, Note! and the Sonae Sierra shopping-centre business, told investors on Tuesday 12 May 2026 that its international sales reached €2.3 billion in 2025, up 45% year on year (+11% like-for-like). For the first time in the group's history, the offshore footprint now contributes more than 20% of consolidated revenue, and the 1,070 stores operated outside Portugal at year-end represent a net addition of 74 locations in twelve months.

The Top of the Tape

The 2025 print across the consolidated group reads:

Turnover: €11.4 billion (+14.2% YoY)
Underlying EBITDA: €1.1 billion (+23.6%)
Net profit attributable: €247 million (+11%)
International revenue: €2.3 billion (+45%)
International stores at 31 December: 1,070 (+74 net)

The 23.6% EBITDA growth carries a margin lift of around 80 basis points over 2024, and CFO João Günther Amaral signalled that the international engine is now 'self-funding' — meaning the offshore platform generates enough operating cash to finance its own store roll-out without drawing on the cash flow produced by the Portuguese food business.

The Five Offshore Engines

The international growth is not a single bet. Five distinct platforms each carry double-digit foreign expansion:

Salsa (fashion): €200 million of sales in 2025, with the Portuguese jeans-and-denim brand pushing into France, Spain and Belgium under the Sonae Fashion umbrella.
Druni and Arenal (beauty): the Spanish chains acquired in 2022 and 2024 now drive Sonae MC's beauty vertical, with Druni's perfumery network across mainland Spain and the Canary Islands.
Musti (pet care): active in seven Nordic and Central European countries with a roll-up of clinics, e-commerce and physical stores.
Worten (consumer electronics): the Spain expansion has continued, with Worten Empresas pushing the B2B channel.
Sonae Sierra (real estate): in October 2025 acquired Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield's third-party shopping-centre management arm in Germany, becoming the country's number-two mall manager overnight.

The Domestic Anchor

Sonae's Portuguese business is anchored by Continente, which Worldpanel by Numerator counts as the country's second-largest food retailer by market share after Pingo Doce. The Q1 2026 Worldpanel print released last week reported gains for Pingo Doce and Lidl and a market-share loss for Mercadona — but Continente held its position. The domestic food platform is the cash engine that financed the offshore acquisitions of the past five years and continues to absorb the labour-cost and energy-cost pressures of the post-storm-quarter consumer market.

What This Means for Expats

Employment footprint: Sonae is the largest private non-financial employer in Portugal, with more than 50,000 staff across the country. The international success underpins job stability inside the Maia head office, the Sonae Sierra real-estate business and the Lisbon, Porto and Lisbon-Norte logistics platforms.
Dividend flow: Sonae SGPS is one of the 16 PSI-listed names; its 2025 attributable profit of €247 million will support a dividend that flows back to Portuguese institutional investors, family offices and household retail accounts holding the stock via PPRs.
Consumer signal: the +14.2% consolidated revenue growth is a read-through on Portuguese household spending — Continente carries the bulk of the food basket, and the brand's pricing posture during the late-2025 and Q1-2026 storm quarters has been a meaningful inflation-anchor for residents.
Retail competition: with Continente, MO, Wells, Worten and Note! all under the same roof, the cross-brand promotional cycles (Cartão Continente fuel discounts, Worten Days, MO sales) remain the most influential weekly events in the Portuguese consumer calendar.