Spar (retailer) throughout Asia, Africa and Oceania. In fiscal year 2017, SPAR achieved €34.5 billion ($40.1 billion) in global sales, which represented a 5.3 percent increase over 2016. The SPAR motto is "under the tree" The name was originally DE SPAR, an acronym of the Dutch phrase (). The acronym was chosen in order to resonate with the verb "sparen", which (related to English "spare") means "save [money]" in Dutch and some other languages, among them German and Scandinavian languages (with variants such as "spara" or "spare"). The acronym ended up meaning "the fir", after which the logo was chosen. As the
District Grocery Stores store owners organized a cooperative organization to stop declining sales and avoid closure of their stores. The cooperative was originally named District Grocery Society as visible in its early advertisements. In 1928, the name was changed to District Grocery Stores while retaining the same initials, D.G.S. Its early motto was "The Grocery Chain of Personal Owners" and later became "The Owner is Your Neighbor". Several version of the logo were used over the years in the various advertisement published in the local newspapers. By the 1960s, many of the stores in the area used a distinctive orange and green sign.