Colruyt Group Store Formats: Fully Prepared for the Festive Season
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
The festive range is now available in stores, the logistics chain is fine-tuned and Colruyt Group's production sites are running at full capacity: Colruyt Group's store formats are fully prepared for the most important period of the year. At the beginning of November, Colruyt Lowest Prices kicked off with a major end-of-year campaign and trend highlights, and the other formats of Belgium's largest truly home-grown retail group, also have something for everyone. The true gourmet feels at home at Cru, while the conscious shopper can enjoy sustainable festive products at Bio-Planet, with extra attention to intolerances. Okay's delicious ready-made menus are certain to be a success once again and at Spar Colruyt Group, the independent retailers and their teams are on hand to ensure a stress-free shopping experience for their customers. and Collect&Go ensures the ultimate convenience through its online services. But there is also room for gift ideas and New Year's resolutions: folding bikes at Bike Republic are particularly popular as Christmas presents. While Jims and Newpharma are preparing to support all those resolutions. An overview.
Focus on (Mental) Convenience - Across All Food Formats
This year again, the focus is clear: we don’t want to make things too complicated during the festive season. The convenient neighbourhood supermarket Okay is, for the seventh year running, presenting its pre-composed menus1 and specialities, which customers can order via www.menu.okay.be. The 8 different menus, starting at €40 for two people, have been thoroughly updated. Extra vegetables have been added for children and, for the first time this year, a "sharing menu" is available, offering tapas-style dishes for each course that can be tasted and shared in pairs. Kim Deweirt, Okay's Marketing Director, adds: "We've been selling menus since 2018, and in 2020 we introduced separate festive specialities. Since 2023, we have also been offering luxury 5-course menus - and they are performing very well. The all-time favourite? Year after year, it’s the menus featuring pork tenderloin.”
The fresh market Cru relieves customers of stress by providing in its four markets a baker, butcher, greengrocer and fishmonger, all under one roof, offering premium quality. Alongside pure ingredients, Cru also focuses on ready-made dishes: Cru's ready-made gourmet dishes taste as if you prepared them yourself and only need a quick turn in the oven. An Martel, taking final responsibility for Cru, explains: “Think of stuffed scallops, rolled turkey fillet roasts, with a wide range of side options such as pumpkin purée with beurre noisette, apples with cranberries, sautéed ground endive and a mushroom mix. And we have the best gratin dauphinois there is. For us, the festive season is crucial to provide hat extra culinary indulgence at restaurant level.”
Thanks to festive menus and convenient ordering options, customers of Colruyt Group's independent neighbourhood supermarkets can also enjoy a carefree holiday season. In addition to easy-to-prepare appetisers and freshly prepared gourmet dishes, customers can also order complete menus and dishes via Spar's digital ordering platform. Fresh croquettes are a top product: last year, Spar sold no fewer than 4,523 kg.
The online grocery service Collect&Go, on the other hand, provides ultimate convenience: all necessities for the holidays can be ordered online, at the lowest prices online, from both the Colruyt and the Bio-Planet range. Collect&Go offers the widest time slots on the market for this, and customers can choose between home delivery (available for almost 60% of all Belgian households) or pickup at one of the 246 collection points.
At Spar Colruyt Group, the focus is on top‑quality classics: gourmet, raclette, hot oven snacks and champagne take centre stage. Each fresh food category features novelties: pistachio is a new flavour in the bakery range (for muffins and croissants), while the butcher's department highlights stuffed half turkeys. But there are also options for vegetarians. Arlette Ghijssels, Marketing Director at Spar Colruyt Group, explains: “Our current festive line includes 46 products, mainly in the aperitif and freshly prepared gourmet range. In the permanent aperitif assortment, 15% is vegan, mainly olives, hummus and spreads. Our entrepreneurs are happy to provide tailor-made preparations for customers with specific dietary preferences."
For an extensive plant-based and vegetarian range, Bio-Planet obviously remains the frontrunner within Colruyt Group. Think festive vegan spreads such as the Fervena Vegan spread with truffle, and as a main course the Wheaty Végé'Rôti' vegan roast beef makes a lasting impression. Belgium's largest organic supermarket has developed several festive recipes especially for people with food intolerances. Under the motto "Happy holidays for truly everyone," a dedicated minisite provides inspiration. At Colruyt, Okay and Spar, Nomet seaweed croquettes for the air fryer have been introduced especially for this festive season as a tasty vegetarian addition to the aperitif platter.
The non-alcoholic range also remains a focus and is growing strongly across all store formats. Bio-Planet offers alcohol-free botanicals from Bulles de Jardins in surprising flavours (such as grape-walnut, rose-ginger or rosemary-bergamot). At Colruyt, customers can enjoy alcohol-free drinks such as Vintense's Limoncello Spritz and The Mocktail Club's Sparkling Yuzu. Ready-to-drink mocktails such as ISH Spritz and RAISIN Sparkling Wine 0.0% are available exclusively at Okay.
Focus on Experience and Inspiration, Online and Offline
To familiarise customers with the ranges, all formats provide opportunities to taste and try products. Cru prganises several weekends with tips and tricks and tastings in its markets. During Spar Colruyt Group's tasting weekend on 5, 6 and 7 December, the independent Spar retailers will give customers the chance to discover the festive range. At Bio-Planet, everyone is welcome on 6 December at all stores for the tasting day of the festive range. And with more tasting samples than ever at Colruyt Lowest Prices, every Belgian has been welcome at the country's largest New Year's reception in their trusted store since November 6. Inspiration also remains key. Special festive brochures continue to play an important role, but the online offering is equally ambitious. Okay, for example, provides more than 170 festive recipes online and customers can use the handy Online Wine Guide to select the best drinks to accompany their dishes. Spar Colruyt Group's magazine 'KOOK' offers no fewer than 113 pages of inspiration for every course of the festive menu.
This year too, the formats are focusing on strong promotions across a relevant festive assortment, without compromising on quality. “In this way, we continue to inspire customers during the festive season with quality products at attractive prices," says Arlette Ghijsels. Okay is offering 1+1 ‘Meepakkers’-deals throughout December: largely on festive products, but also on everyday basic essentials.
Not just offerings for the "Big Moments" and Importance of Regional Anchoring
The end-of-year survey recently conducted by Colruyt in collaboration with iVOX confirmed it: Belgians are expected to attend an average of 3 different celebrations during the festive season. Spar Colruyt Group takes this into account: “We increasingly notice that festive occasions are not limited to the traditional Christmas Eve New Year's Eve, but are celebrated over a longer period. Think of the office Christmas drinks with colleagues, a brunch with friends, or a trial dinner with the (newly composed) family, ... For Spar, the festive season is not only about the "big four" (Christmas Eve - Christmas Day - New Year's Eve - New Year's Day), but about all festive moments during the period - both large and small. Because every customer has unique festive traditions, and our independent Spar retailers are firmly rooted locally, we also tailor our offers to regional preferences," explains Arlette Ghijssels. “We see that Flanders and Wallonia traditionally have different festive habits. While traditional gourmet dining remains important in Flanders, raclette dishes are more often the focus across the language border”.
No "Food" Without "Health" or "Beauty”: Time for Resolutions (and Gifts)
Everyone wants to look their best during the festive season. With a new party outfit from ZEB or Pointcarré, that's effortless. Bio-Planet has introduced a completely renewed range of BOHO mineral make-up. This year, Colruyt is exclusively offering a "Summer Beauty" beauty range, similar to Sol de Janeiro, available in almost all stores. In skincare, online pharmacy Newpharma has grown into an indispensable reference point. With more than 3,000 brands at low prices all year round, the chain now welcomes Avril, the cosmetics brand of the moment: 100% natural and organically certified.
According to iVOX's recent end-of-year survey commissioned by Colruyt, the main activity for nearly two-thirds of Belgians is buying gifts. Women (70%) report doing this more often than men (57%). Bio-Planet, Okay and Cru are offering attractive gift hampers, especially for the festive period. Online pharmacy Newpharma provides an extensive range of gift boxes: Colruyt Group's online pharmacy offers more than 50 references from well-known and trendy brands such as Nuxe, Clarins and Clinique - ideal for gifting quality moments of wellbeing.
Bike specialist Bike Republic consistently records an increase in sales of children's bicycles and folding bikes as popular gifts under the Christmas tree. Safety is also high on the wish list, with helmets featuring integrated lights and even indicators, as well as hi-vis vests and luminous cycling accessories. Cyclists can also be treated to a thorough maintenance and cleaning service of their bikes. A perfect way to reinforce good resolutions for a healthy new year. "Healthiness" specialist Jims is responding with attractive discounts on memberships in the months of January and February.
To support immunity during this often tiring festive period, Newpharma is launching a completely new range of nutritional supplements under its own brand/private label. With this line, Newpharma confirms its commitment to preventive and accessible health. The range consists of 13 products addressing the most common needs – immunity, fatigue, stress, joints, vitality, cardiovascular health, digestion – and is offered with personalised advice.
1 A recent festive-season survey iVOX, by commissioned by Colruyt revealed: More than 2 in 5 respondents (45%) find it difficult to come up with a menu for the holidays/festive season. Most Belgians opt for a classic three-course menu with a starter, main course and dessert: more than half (55%) eat this way, and a quarter believe that supermarkets can help by suggesting complete menus (24%).
More images available on demand, please press@colruytgroup.com.