Slovenia Retailer Mercator Opens 1st Supermarket in Bulgaria



The Slovenian retail chain for fast moving goods opened Thursday its first supermarket in Bulgaria's southern city of Stara Zagora.

The store covers an area of 3 000 square meters and was completed in less than 6 months with an investment amount estimated at EUR 3 M. It employs 60 people, who all underwent training in Slovenia, and offers 15 000 food items and other consumer goods.

Bulgaria is the sixth country where the company has stores and plans are for 6 new supermarkets to open by the end of 2010 with investments of EUR 40 M. Mercator's strategic plan is to have 3% of Bulgaria's retail market by the end of 2012.

The company's anti-crisis measures include changing the range or products and lowering retail prices. Mercator aims at offering local goods, which will be the case in Bulgaria as well – they will represent 90% of the products sold in stores in the country.

The Mercator Group is one of the largest commercial chains in South-eastern Europe;
it is the leading commercial chain in Slovenia and it is rapidly becoming an established chain in the markets of Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2005, the company entered the Macedonian market.

Mercator Group builds and "
Rhoda Mega-market in Bulgaria

Slovenian Mercator Group will open its first facility in the chain Roda Mega-market in Bulgaria next week, said the management of Mercator-B press conference today. Magazinant will be opened on October 27 Blvd Vladimir Vazov "
in Sofia.

After Sofia holding three Mega-market Roda will work in the country by year's end - in Varna mall "
Varna Towers"
in the Gallery Mall in Stara Zagora and re-branding Mercator supermarket in Stara Zagora, which Mercator Group started its business in Bulgaria a year ago.

Roda is one of the strongest brands of the Mercator Group in Central and Eastern Europe, said the manager of the Mercator-B Mitsich Branco, who took over management of the company for Bulgaria at the previous CEO Jordan Terziiski.

Shop in Sofia is located 4 thousand square meters of retail space, it will run close to 100 employees. It will run from 8 to 21:30 pm Monday to Saturday and from 9 to 20 am Sunday.

In object invested a total of 4 million and the total investment planned by the end of the year amounted to 10 million. We will continue to grow in the coming years, our goal is to achieve a 3% share of the market by the end of 2012, said Mitsich.

The assortment of stores like "
will include over 20 thousand items, the ratio between the products of Bulgarian and foreign producers will be 50:50, said Margarita Deneva, commercial director of Mercator-B. The chain will launch with nearly 170 products under their own brand. We plan to expand our product range under own brand to local manufacturers, the products will be offered not only at the sites of the chain in Bulgaria but in other markets, where "
family"
present, explained Deneva.

The term "
megamarket is new for Bulgaria. With it, we want to tell consumers that offer mega assortment, low prices and mega mega deals, "
said marketing manager of the company Velislava Anastasova.

Roda Mega-market will have mixed concept of retailer and cash &
carry format. In the sites will be able to shop customers, but also companies will be able to place orders in bulk, to be served a separate entrance.
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[size=55:3vhbkc8f]Regal 28 October 2010

Roda Megamarket "
opened in Sofia its first facility in the country"





The first store chain trading FMCG Roda Megamarket ("
Rhoda Megamarket"
), owned by Slovenian Mercator Group, today opened its doors to customers. The site is located within the retail park on Blvd Vladimir Vazov "
in Sofia, near the construction hypermarket bauMax.

The site of Roda Megamarket is located 4 thousand square meters of retail space, employs nearly 100 employees, offers 600 free parking spaces. His range includes 20 thousand in sections arkitula food and non food goods. Furthermore, the site offers a delicatessen counters for meat products where the meat cut and packaged on site, and own a bakery for fresh bread.

Broad is the presence of products under own brand Mercator chain that vkluchva 170 items. Currently goods under its own brand are fully imported, but plans are part of them are produced by local suppliers.

In terms of proposals and prices our positioning is successful, judging by the interest and cart our customers in the store until said Branko Mitsich, CEO of Mercator-B.

The chain is positioned in the lower and middle price segment, explained from the company's management. Among the offers are starting a pound of bananas cost 0.89 EUR and yogurt for 0.32 BGN

Roda Megamarket a mixed conception of a retailer and cash &
carry format, ie the site can shop as customers and companies with wholesale orders.

Shopping wholesale is adapted special section of the site. We double pzitsionirane in goods set out in cash &
carry department so that they can shop retail and end-clients, explained Branko Mitsich. These are mainly bulk products such as water, soft drinks and others. The specific is that some of the products are arranged on shelves in a convenient shopping kind of small quantities, while others are packed in razfasovski wholesale.

No individual product prices when buying wholesale and retail, but the professional customers have many special package offers, explained Velislava Anastassova, Marketing Manager at Mercator-B. Two special cases serve corporate customers.

So far the chain has no plans to introduce self-service boxes, as they await the results after the start of the chain in the country. Such a significant investment in technology is worth when the already operating several stores in the chain, said Mitsich.

After Sofia holding three megamarketa Roda will work in the country by year's end - in Varna mall "
Varna Towers"
in the Gallery Mall in Stara Zagora and rebranding Mercator supermarket in Stara Zagora, which Mercator Group started its business in Bulgaria a year ago.

Don't know it but its all good keep them coming