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
Fraser fir could be "milked" from its bark blisters, in contrast to the "he balsam" (red spruce) which could not be milked. It has also occasionally been called balsam fir, inviting confusion with "A. balsamea". "Abies fraseri" is a small evergreen coniferous tree typically growing between 30 and 50 feet (10–15 m) tall, but rarely to 80 ft (25 m), with a trunk diameter of 16 to 20 inches (40–50 cm), but rarely 30 in (75 cm). The crown is conical, with straight branches either horizontal or angled upward at 40° from the trunk; it is dense when the tree is young