Large brands from developing countries are strengthening their position among the ‘retailing champions’. The 14th edition of Deloitte’s business barometer reports a progress made by brands from China, Mexico and Brazil. In fact, half of the countries in the list of the ‘top 20’ have changed in the last decade.

Deloitte also points out to two new strong tendencies: specialisation, illustrated by Best Buy, Lowe’s or Home Depot, and internationalisation, where the giant European clothing retailers H&M and Zara (Inditex) made considerable progress. The study shows that food retailers should soon start to follow the same path.

The top 5 have remained identical to the ones last year, those being Walmart, Carrefour, Metro, Tesco and Schwartz. The top 10 make up 30% of the total sales turnover of the 250 brands taken into account, although many suffered from under-performance in 2010.

The biggest shock came from lower down, where sales figures from developing countries kept rising. Chinese group Bailian went from 90th to 70th place, while Brazilian Pao de Açucar also jumped from 92nd to 75th. The American brand Coach made its first appearance in the list at 238th place, but it was overtaken by Grupo Chedraui from Mexico, which came in 219th position.