A Clustering Analysis to Identify the Performance of Food and Grocery Retail Companies Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Food and grocery retail companies have a significant economic impact on local economies by creating jobs and providing daily needs of customers. The Covid-19 pandemic affects the food and grocery retail sector. Growing population, changing customer demands, and increasing competition are the main challenges in this sector. Hence, these problems have influenced the operational performance of the companies. Within the scope of the study, companies operating in Borsa Istanbul and having a widespread network in Turkiye were selected. In this study, the activities of the aforementioned companies for the years 2012-2020 were analyzed, and their performances before and during the pandemic were compared by means of the clustering method. Hence, a series of financial indicators such as liquidity ratios, efficiency ratios, solvency ratios, and profitability ratios were taken into account for this sector. The results also demonstrate that the companies with a high number of branches and good stock management continue their activities in the Covid-19.