Dali Everyday Grocery

Not to be confused with Dali Foods Group.

Dali Everyday Grocery

Company type	Aktiengesellschaft (AG)
Industry	Retail
Founded	2020 (2020)
Headquarters	Zug, Switzerland
Number of locations	630 (2024)
Area served	Philippines
Key people	Andreas Höfner (chairman) Joerg Gruenewald (CFO, HDPI)
Products	Groceries Consumer goods
Subsidiaries	HDPM Sin Pte. Ltd. Hard Discount Philippines Inc.
Website	dali-discount.com dali.ph

Dali Discount AG, doing business as Dali Everyday Grocery or simply Dali (stylized in all caps), is a Swiss international hard discount retail chain with a primary focus on Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines. Its Singapore-based subsidiary, HDPM Sin Pte. Ltd., operates a local subsidiary known as Hard Discount Philippines Inc. (HDPI), which is headquartered in Carmona, Cavite.

It is organized as an Aktiengesellschaft (AG), a German word that is roughly equivalent to a joint-stock company, and is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. As of 2024, Dali has at least 630 stores in the Philippines, all located in Luzon.

History

Dali opened its first store in February 2020 in Santa Rosa, Laguna, and by the end of 2022, it had at least 250 stores in the Philippines. In March 2023, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) invested US$15 million to support the retail chain's expansion. Earlier that year, Malaysian-based private equity firm Creador invested US$50 million in Dali's expansion. This followed Philippine-based private equity firm Navegar's undisclosed investment into Dali, which began in August 2022. In 2024, Singapore-based equity firm Venturi Partners invested US$25 million to Dali.

In April 2024, the number of stores increased to 630 (all in Luzon), with plans have a total of 950 stores by the end of the year.

Business model

Dali is the first company in the Philippines to pioneer hard discount retailing in the country, with a focus on underprivileged communities as its primary market. Its stores are leanly staffed, often with just two cashiers and no baggers, which helps reduce labor and stocking costs. They display products in their original boxes and avoid elaborate interiors and extensive advertising costs, akin to a supermarket model originating from Germany. Typically, they are small and located in rural, peri-urban, and lower-income areas rather than city centers.

Products

Dali's range of products includes everyday household items such as snacks, kitchen staples, and cleaning supplies. While it retails some popular branded items, the majority of its products are proprietary brands that closely resemble well-known ones, bordering on copyright infringement. Dali claims that the quality of their private label products "meets or exceeds the equivalent national brands sold in other national retail chains" while being significantly more affordable. Around 60–70% of its products are sourced locally in the Philippines and the remainder are imported from Malaysia, China, South Korea, and Europe.

Reactions

Writing in The Philippine Star, author and businessman Joey Concepcion described the entry of Dali, a hard discounter, into the Philippine market as a "disruption" to sari-sari stores, which he called "the very symbol of micro-entrepreneurship in the Philippines".

Criticisms and controversies

On May 16, 2024, consumer advocacy group Malayang Konsyumer filed a complaint with the Fair Trade and Enforcement Bureau of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) concerning Dali's alleged unfair business practices, which include inaccurate pricing and weighing of chicken, as well as the erroneous inclusion of items in invoices. In response, the DTI stated that it is conducting an investigation on the matter and reported that 82 select Dali branches they monitored have complied with the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) and Price Tag Law during routine checks between January and April 2024.