Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing

Low prices and high sales volumes underpin the chain’s retail model, which seeks to expand market share while maintaining relatively low profit margins and overall profitability.[2] The founder’s public profile has also formed part of its marketing strategy.[2] From fewer than ten branches in 2007, when most sales were concentrated in the Jerusalem area, the business grew to almost 50 branches by May 2017 and became one of Israel’s leading national supermarket chains.[1]

The company has been publicly traded since 2007.[4] In 2017, Rami Levy was its controlling shareholder and chief executive, holding just under half its shares.[1] A 2023 court decision described Levy and his wife, Adina, as controlling the listed company through private companies, principally Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing Ltd.[4] Alongside its supermarket operations, the business developed mobile-telephony services and pursued online retailing and additional store formats.[1][5]

The business began with a small shop on Hashikma Street near Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market in 1976, offering individual consumers food at wholesale prices rather than restricting those prices to business customers.[2][6] Within a year, Levy expanded into the neighboring shop, and within two years he acquired a storage facility in Givat Shaul.[6] Another shop using the same format opened in Jerusalem’s Ramot Alon neighborhood in 1981, followed by a large Talpiot store in 1992.[2] During the 1980s, Levy also marketed products to other stores and chains.[1]

The chain’s public offering in 2007 raised NIS 170 million through shares and bonds and valued the company at NIS 500 million after the offering.[1] At that stage, it remained predominantly a Jerusalem-area business with fewer than ten branches.[1] Levy later credited the public listing with helping expansion by increasing transparency and supporting the company’s development.[1] A flagship branch opposite Ayalon Mall in Ramat Gan opened in May 2009.[2]

In 2015, the company announced an agreement to buy seven branches from the financially troubled Mega chain for NIS 38 million, subject to regulatory approval and new lease agreements.[7] The proposed locations were Bnei Brak, Hadera, Haifa, Yokne’am, Yehud, Nazareth and Petah Tikva.[7] The announcement put the existing chain at 34 branches, noted that five had opened during 2015, and anticipated employment of about 1,000 workers at the acquired locations.[7] The purchase was presented as part of a strategy of acquiring branches and opening stores in places where the chain did not yet operate.[7]

In 2016, the chain’s geographic reach extended from Nahariya to Beersheba, and its 34 reported branches included two serving the ultra-Orthodox public.[2] By May 2017, its network had grown to almost 50 branches.[1] A June 2023 account put the network at 52 branches, including three franchises, supported by a 30,000-square-meter logistics center in Modi’in and approximately 8,000 employees.[8] By March 2025, the reported total was 57 branches.[3]

In September 2024, the board approved appointing Levy’s daughter, Yafit Attias, as co-chief executive, subject to approval at the annual shareholders meeting, with an anticipated starting date of January 1, 2025.[9] Attias had worked at the company for 25 years and had spent a decade as vice president of marketing.[9] Her proposed responsibilities included the loyalty club, marketing, advertising, operations and special projects.[9]

The chain’s discount strategy combines pressure on supplier prices with control of operating costs.[6] Levy described pressing suppliers for reductions and sometimes discontinuing relationships with suppliers that raised prices without an apparent reason.[6] The business also avoided some senior management positions as part of its cost approach.[6] Its stated model emphasized small margins and substantial sales volumes rather than high profit on individual purchases.[2][6]

Private-label goods became a substantial component of sales: in the company’s 2022 results, they accounted for 25% of sales and comprised more than 5,500 products.[10] The range extended beyond food to toiletries and cleaning products.[10] In June 2023, the company said it was considering cooperation with international retailers, including Auchan, Casino and SPAR, amid discussions about introducing an international retailer or its private-label products to Israel.[8] It did not disclose further details of those plans at that time.[8]

Online sales began approximately a year and a half before a 2013 account in which Levy said they generated 20–25% of the chain’s sales.[11] After initial operational difficulties, the chain established dedicated staff for online orders and deliveries.[11] Levy said online customers received the same discounts as shoppers in physical branches.[11] In 2017, further expansion of online shopping and development of branches within cities remained among his plans.[1]

In 2019, the chain launched a 1,800-square-meter online-order logistics center beneath Tel Aviv’s Shalom Tower in cooperation with Fabric, formerly CommonSense Robotics.[12] Robots sorted dry, refrigerated and frozen goods at the underground facility, which was described as capable of handling 350–400 orders daily.[12] Across its operations, the chain was then filling approximately 5,000–6,000 online orders per day.[12] The site was the first of 12 urban centers the chain planned, and it announced an intention to offer two-hour delivery in parts of Tel Aviv.[12] Fabric employees operated the facility under a five-year agreement giving Rami Levy exclusivity with Fabric in Israel’s food sector.[12]

Agricultural sourcing included a large domestic component: in 2020, Levy said that 97% of the agricultural produce sold in the stores was Israeli-grown and 3% imported.[13] He said imports filled gaps when local products were unavailable and described a planned partnership with tomato growers intended to help secure supply.[13] The chain was not participating in the Agriculture Ministry’s produce-origin labeling pilot at the time.[13] In March 2025, Redefine Meat announced distribution through the chain of products including beef-style ground and shredded products, burgers, kebab, sausages, flank steak, shawarma-style pieces and bratwurst.[3]

Activities outside supermarket groceries included mobile telephony, which Levy said had 150,000 subscribers in 2017 and had been profitable from its first months.[1] Levy also had substantial real-estate activity, principally around Jerusalem, and owned some properties used by the chain’s branches.[1] In 2022, the company announced Rami Levy Stock, a discount non-food chain whose first four planned stores were in Jerusalem, Rishon LeZion, Pardes Hanna and Beersheba.[5] Each was expected to occupy about 2,000 square meters, with dozens more stores envisaged over the following three years.[5]

The planned Rami Levy Stock assortment covered 50 departments, including home décor, kitchenware, seasonal products, games, children’s items, school supplies, bathroom accessories and clothing.[5] In July 2026, company chief executive Yafit Levy disclosed plans to enter electricity sales and said the company was examining opportunities in the hotel industry.[14] She also said its percentage profit margin had remained broadly unchanged over the preceding five years.[14]

The first decade after the public offering brought substantial increases in sales, profits and market value.[1] Annual revenue rose sevenfold to NIS 4.5 billion in 2016, while net profit more than tripled to over NIS 90 million, compared with less than NIS 30 million in the year of the offering.[1] By May 2017, the shares had returned 600% to investors and market capitalization stood at NIS 2.4 billion, second among Israeli supermarket chains only to the much larger Shufersal.[1]

Over that decade, Levy sold portions of his holdings for more than NIS 400 million.[1] The company distributed NIS 670 million in dividends after the offering, of which his share amounted to NIS 400 million, and paid him NIS 37 million for chief executive services.[1] Levy also argued that the chain’s competitive effect extended beyond its own customers, estimating in 2017 that the average Israeli household’s food basket would cost 20–30% more without it.[1]

For 2022, revenue increased 9% to NIS 7 billion, operating profit reached NIS 320 million, and net profit fell 15% to NIS 173 million.[10] Levy attributed the net-profit decline mainly to greater customer discounts that reduced gross profit, while emphasizing the importance of increasing customer numbers.[10] In the first half of 2024, revenue rose 0.7% to NIS 3.58 billion, operating profit increased 10% to NIS 183 million, and net profit rose 22% to NIS 130 million.[9]

Second-quarter operating profit in 2024 nevertheless fell nearly 22% year over year to NIS 94 million.[9] The company attributed the decline to Passover discounts, war-related sales reductions in northern branches, and lower online sales caused by staffing shortages.[9] Kiryat Shmona, Akko and Nahariya were the locations identified as most affected.[9]

The chain’s workforce and customer base have also included both Israelis and Palestinians.[15] In 2015, three of its 32 reported discount supermarkets were in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[15] At the Gush Etzion store, customers included Palestinians and Israelis, while Palestinians constituted half the workforce.[15] Levy said he did not discriminate in hiring on grounds of ethnicity, religion or gender.[15] Describing the store, he said: “Here Jews serve Arabs and Arabs serve Jews and Muslims and Jews know each other, and they congratulate each other on their holidays.”[15]

Levy also recalled that people initially tried to prevent Palestinians from shopping at the Gush Etzion branch, but that “soon even those trying to stop them were shopping here.”[15] Security risks affected other operations: in December 2014, an attacker stabbed two customers at the Mishor Adumim supermarket before being shot.[16] The attacker was described as 16½ years old and as having sustained minor wounds; two other Palestinians were detained on suspicion of assisting him.[16]

In 2015, the chain moved knives, kitchen scissors and pizza cutters out of store aisles and placed them at service desks, requiring customers to request them.[17] Drori Levy, who worked in the family business, explained that while a guard at the entrance sought to prevent attacks, leaving potential weapons accessible on shelves undermined that precaution.[17]

A shareholder derivative-action proceeding challenged rents paid for supermarket properties leased from Levy-controlled companies.[4] The applicants alleged that some rents paid between 2010 and 2016 exceeded market rates and cited an expert estimate of approximately NIS 62 million in excess payments.[4] The respondents disputed this, maintaining that the leases had been properly approved and that rents were at or below market levels.[4] A January 2023 court-approved settlement provided for NIS 11.5 million in future rent reductions before VAT over six years at ten stores, together with corporate-governance and related-party transaction approval measures.[4] The court expressly stated that the settlement did not constitute an admission that above-market rents had been paid.[4]

In 2020, Levy filed a NIS 280,000 defamation suit against the UN Human Rights Council after the chain’s inclusion on a UN list of businesses linked to Israeli settlements.[18] Filed through Shurat HaDin, the suit asserted that the company’s West Bank operations did not violate Palestinians’ rights; the company also maintained that Jewish and Palestinian employees were employed equally.[18] These were positions advanced in the litigation and company statements, rather than adjudicated findings in the report.[18]

In October 2026, the Jerusalem Regional Labor Court approved a class action concerning deductions from cashiers’ wages after register shortages.[19] Brought by two former cashiers, the case covered qualifying employees with such deductions during the seven years before the 2023 filing; a separate allegation about workers paying shortages in cash was excluded.[19] The court found a reasonable chance of success and described the practice as imposing “absolute responsibility,” but certification allowed the litigation to proceed rather than determining final liability.[19] Separately, Levy’s estimate of the chain’s effect on national food prices remained his own counterfactual assessment, not an independently verified measurement.[1]