Having obtained approval from the anti-trust authorities in Poland*, under certain conditions, Groupe Auchan has just finalised on February, 6th the last part of the acquisition of Real hypermarkets in Eastern Europe with the METRO GROUP.
Croix, France, 2014-2-11 — /EPR Retail News/ — With these additional 57 Polish hypermarkets, Auchan now has 85 hypermarkets in the country (the opening of an 86th hypermarket is scheduled for March 2014 in Lublin) and employs 22,000 people, after having received 11,000 new ex-Real employees.
In 2013, the Auchan Group had already integrated two hypermarkets in Ukraine (March), 16 hypermarkets in Russia (April) and 20 hypermarkets in Romania (September). Thanks to the strong involvement of the teams, the name change has already been completed in Russia and Ukraine and will be completed in late April in Romania. In these three countries, more than 9,000 new employees joined the company in 2013. In Poland, the name change will be phased in over the coming months. The rapid integration of these hypermarkets will be conducted parallel to the rent negotiation process with landlords.
Auchan progressively implements its commercial strategy throughout the former Real store network, including a changed pricing strategy. Auchan’s commercial strategy really matches the needs of consumers in these countries and reinforces its position as a responsible discounter whose goal is to improve the purchasing power and standard of living of the largest number of customers.
Groupe Auchan now operates 834 integrated hypermarkets, including 267 in Western Europe, 224 in Central and Eastern Europe and 343 in Asia as well as 362 shopping centres, including 86 in Eastern Europe.
Press contact:
François Cathalifaud – Tel. + 33 (0)1 58 65 08 10 – fcathalifaud@auchan.fr
Investor contact:
Vincent Schiltz – Tel. + 33 (0)3 20 81 68 54 – v.schiltz@auchan.fr