Maia, Portugal, March 19, 2026 (Lusa) - Sonae's chief executive officer (CEO) highlighted geopolitics on Thursday as the current "biggest unknown" for the group's business, saying it may reduce margins to minimise the impact of rising oil prices on food retail.
"Geopolitics is by far the biggest unknown we have," Cláudia Azevedo said, noting that "the main scenarios [on the table] revolve around oil prices and how the [supply] chain affects the various businesses" following the war in Iran.
She noted that the entire food distribution value chain "is heavily affected by oil prices," as seen during the war in Ukraine, but said everything would depend on how long the Middle East conflict lasts.
"It is very different if the war lasts another week or another month, two months or two years. Therefore, these are the scenarios [being studied] and how we can adapt to try to make our value proposition to customers as attractive as possible under these price increases," she said.
The group's chief financial officer (CFO), João Dolores, noted that recent inflation in food retail "is controlled and relatively low," at around 3% at the start of the year, "somewhat lower" than in 2025 (around 4%).
"Customers are not yet feeling an acceleration of inflation across all products," he said, although he acknowledged that "it is natural that if this situation persists, inflationary pressure will also start to emerge in the supply chain and among the group's suppliers," with "some echoes that this is happening".
"It was like this in the past, during the last inflationary crisis, and we played our part, lowered our margins, and absorbed the impact on consumers, and that is what we can guarantee now as well," João Dolores emphasised.
Regarding government measures to support companies and consumers, Sonae's CEO said that those taken in the last inflationary crisis could be replicated, noting they "took some time to reach the value chain, but in the end were balanced".
"All players in the value chain must play their part, and the state is obviously one of them. I think last time it did so responsibly, and I believe this time we will also find a collective solution that benefits the final customers and attempts to soften the shock," Azevedo said.
Asked if she supports a return to the zero-VAT product basket, Azevedo said that "Obviously [it is a measure] we would like very much".
PD/LYT // ADB.
Lusa
