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Action

Company type	Private
Industry	Retail
Founded	July 1993; 31 years ago (1993-07) in Enkhuizen, Netherlands
Headquarters	Zwaagdijk-Oost, Netherlands
Number of locations	2,725 (2024)
Areas served	Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Slovakia
Key people	Hajir Hajji (CEO) Simon Borrows (chairman)
Revenue	€11.3 billion (2023)
Owner	3i (80%)
Number of employees	~70,000 (2023)
Website	action.com

Action is a Dutch international discount store chain with a majority ownership held by British private equity firm 3i, with more than 80% of the shares. It sells low budget, non-food and some food products with long shelf lives. Action operates stores in twelve countries — Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Luxembourg, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, since 2022 in Spain, since 2023 in Slovakia and since 2024 in Portugal. Action, with over 2,500 stores and 70,000 employees, generated €11.3 billion in net sales in 2023.

History

Action was founded by Gerard Deen and Rob Wagemaker, who were later joined by Boris Deen. They opened their first store in 1993 in Enkhuizen and started expanding by founding new stores that same year. In 2002, they had 94 stores; in 2005, the first store was opened in Belgium, in Rijkevorsel; and, in 2009, they opened their first store in Germany. In 2012, the company had 300 stores and opened its first store in France. In 2014, Action opened its 500th store. It continued growing exponentially. In 2021, there are more than 1,800 stores across Europe. In November 2023 they opened their 2500th store.

References

1. "Stores | Action.com". www.action.com.
2. "Action results 2023: Continued growth and development".
3. "3i Group breaks through £20bn valuation on back of extraordinary Action". citywire.com. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
4. "Action results 2023: continued growth and development". 2023-03-21. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
5. "Map of locations" (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 June 2017.

External links

• Official website

• Companies based in North Holland
• Dutch companies established in 1993
• Retail companies established in 1993
• Discount stores of the Netherlands
• 3i Group companies