3 August 2009 - REWE Group parts with its Polish supermarkets. The 25 branch stores of the sales line BILLA will be acquired by the French trading group E.Leclerc, which operates 20 food stores in Poland already. It was agreed to keep the purchase price confidential. The approval of the Polish cartel authority is still pending.
The transaction was organised within the framework of an invitation to tender. "I am very happy that E.Leclerc was awarded the take-over in Poland and that they now have the critical mass needed for acting on this market", said Alain Caparros, CEO of REWE Group.
In the past year BILLA Poland achieved a turnover of about 100 million euros with around 1,600 employees. The stores are particularly located in the southern part of the country. REWE Group has been active on the highly developed and competitive Polish market since 1996.
In future, the Cologne-based trading group will concentrate in Poland on the cash-and-carry wholesale business, which is operated under the SELGROS brand. This brand is further expanding its position as the unrivalled number two in the Polish cash-and-carry market segment. By the end of next year, another three locations will be added to the current store base of 12 wholesale markets.
REWE Group is further expanding also in the rest of Eastern Europe, where it has a strong market position and where will open more than 140 new stores in this year alone. The Cologne-based trading group is present with supermarkets, discount stores and cash-and-carry stores in another ten countries of the region.