Metro Cash and Carry

METRO Cash & Carry

Type	Private
Industry	Wholesale
Founded	1964
Headquarters	Düsseldorf, Germany
Key people	Frans W.H. Muller, CEO
Products	FMCG
Revenue	€33.1 billion (2008)
Employees	~100.000 (2007)
Website	www.metro-cc.com

METRO Cash & Carry is an international self-service wholesale retailer. It operates across Europe and in some countries of Asia and Northern Africa. It is the largest sales division of the German trade and retail giant METRO AG.

METRO Cash & Carry is different from B2C retail chains (such as Walmart, Carrefour or Tesco) in that its business concept is targeted towards professional customers rather than end consumers. The cash-and-carry concept is based around self-service and bulk buying. METRO Cash & Carry serves to registered customers only. Core customer groups are hotels, restaurants, caterers, traders and other business professionals.

International operations

As of 2007, METRO Cash & Carry has operations in the 29 countries.

Metro Cash and Carry around the world

Makro logo

METRO in St Petersburg

Country	First Wholesale Center	Number of Wholesale Centers
Germany	1964	123
France	1971	92
Russia	2001	52
Italy	1972	48
China	1996	37
Spain1	1972	34
United Kingdom1	1971	33
Poland1	1994	27
Ukraine	2003	26
Romania	1996	25
Turkey	1990	18
Netherlands1	1968	16
Vietnam	2002	15
Hungary	1994	13
Bulgaria	1999	13
Austria	1971	12
Czech Republic1	1997	12
Belgium	1970	10
Portugal1	1990	11
Greece1	1992	9
Serbia	2005	7
Morocco	1991	7
Croatia	2001	6
Denmark	1971	5
Slovakia	2000	5
India	2003	7
Pakistan	2007	5
Moldova	2004	3
Japan	2002	3
Kazakhstan	20092	2
Egypt1	20102	0

¹ operates under the brand name makro

² expected opening

Turkey

The first METRO Cash & Carry stores in Turkey opened in Istanbul in 1990. As of 1990 the company operates eighteen stores in the following cities:

• Istanbul (x5)
• Ankara (x2)
• Bursa (x2)
• Izmir (x2)
• Adana
• Antalya
• Alanya
• Bodrum
• Gaziantep
• Konya
• Izmit

Bulgaria

The first two METRO Cash and Carry stores in Bulgaria opened in Sofia and Plovdiv on 18 March 1999. As of 2010 the company operates 13 stores in 11 cities (including Metro Kompact 2 stores):

• Sofia (x2)
• Plovdiv (x2)
• Ruse
• Varna
• Stara Zagora
• Burgas
• Blagoevgrad
• Pleven
• Veliko Tarnovo

Metro Kompact 2 stores in Bulgaria:

• Haskovo
• Dobrich

A number of other stores are planned.

India

The first METRO Cash & Carry wholesale center in India opened in Bangalore in 2003. Currently there are 7 wholesale centers in operation, two in Bangalore and two in Hyderabad , of which one was opened on 30 November 2006. The first Mumbai store was opened in 2008 at Bhandup. and the Kolkata store located at Kalikapur, EM Bypass in 2008.The metro cash & carry out was opened at [Ludhiana] city in [Punjab] on Jallandhar bye pass road in the first week of September 2011. It has now opened its second store in Mumbai near Western Express Highway, Borivli (E) on 17th November 2011.

Poland

The first Makro Cash and Carry shop was opened in Warsaw, Gdynia and Łódź in 1994. Now the company has 38 stores in:

Białystok Bielsko-Biała Bydgoszcz Częstochowa Gorzów Wielkopolski (MAKRO Punkt) Jelenia Góra (MAKRO Punkt) Kalisz Katowice Kielce Koszalin Kraków (x2) Leszno (MAKRO Punkt) Lublin Łódź Nowy Targ (MAKRO Punkt)

Olsztyn Opole Piła (MAKRO Punkt) Poznań Radom (MAKRO Punkt) Rybnik Rzeszów Rzgów Słupsk (MAKRO Punkt) Sosnowiec Szczawno-Zdrój Szczecin Tarnobrzeg (MAKRO Punkt) Tarnów (MAKRO Punkt) Toruń Tricity (x2)

Warsaw (x3) Wrocław Zabrze

Romania

Metro hypermarket in Berceni, Bucharest, (April 29, 2008)

METRO Cash and Carry was one of the first international food and non-food retail chains to enter the Romanian market, opening its first store in 1996 in Bucharest, near Henri Coandă International Airport.

As of 2011, it operates 30 stores in major cities across the country and is one of the most well-known chains. Metro has stores in the following cities:

Arad Bacău Baia Mare Braşov (x2) Brăila Bucharest (x5) Buzău Botoşani (planned) Cluj-Napoca Constanţa (x2) Craiova Deva

Galaţi Iaşi Oradea Piatra Neamţ Piteşti Ploieşti Satu Mare Sibiu Suceava Târgu Mureş Târgovişte Timişoara (x2)

The supermarket in Oradea is one of the most successful of the branches and has been especially popular with Hungarians, who are crossing the border to buy products from the hypermarket since prices are significantly cheaper in Romania than in Hungary. This phenomenon has mainly started since Hungary joined the European Union, an occurrence which has increased prices in Hungary.

Serbia

The first Metro Cash and Carry store in Serbia opened in Belgrade in 2005. As of 2011 the company operates 7 stores in six cities:

• Belgrade (x3)
• Kragujevac
• Novi Sad
• Niš
• Subotica

Belgrade stores are located in Zemun, Krnjača and Vidikovac.

Pakistan

Metro Cash and Carry located in Faisalabad, Pakistan. (May 1, 2010)

Metro Cash and Carry located in Lviv, Ukraine.

Metro Cash and Carry opened its first wholesale center in the city Lahore on October 31, 2007. Second store was opened in the Pakistan's capital Islamabad on April 3, 2008. The year 2009 marked the opening of three more Metro Cash and Carry centers in Lahore, Karachi, and Faisalabad, bringing the total number of stores at 5. Plan of additional 10 stores are under way. Its main head-office is located in Lahore at Thokar Niaz Baig and vice-head office in Karachi

Ukraine

Kiev (x4) Odessa (x2) Kharkiv (x2) Dnipropetrovsk (x2) Donetsk (x2) Lviv (x2) Makiyivka Luhansk Kryvyy Rih

Poltava Vinnytsia Zaporizhia Chernivtsi Rivne Mykolayiv Ivano-Frankivsk Mariupol Simferopol

Egypt

On May 18, 2008, METRO Cash & Carry announced its market entry into Egypt under the MAKRO brand name. The first wholesale center is expected to open mid 2010.

The company is present in the following locations since:
El Salam 2010- June El Qalyubia 2010 October

Portugal

Makro Cash & Carry is present in Portugal since 1989. The expansion of the company was extremely fast and at the end of the first year of activity Makro was leading the industry. The then innovative concept of “all under one roof” offer represented a key weapon in this growth, since it gave customers the possibility to purchase in one place everything they needed for their businesses, both in Food and Nonfood areas. The first store opened in Portugal was installed in 1990 in Alfragide (Lisbon) and today the company has eleven operating units in the main urban and economic centers of the country. Currently Makro Cash & Carry Portugal is second only to its main competitor, Recheio, a wholesaler belonging to Jeronimo Martins Group. Makro Cash & Carry Portugal doesn't want to be a mere supplier, but a complete partner to it's customers, and therefore several initiatives are presented seasonally to all customer segments on Makro's portfolio of customers. The company is present in the following cities since:

• Lisbon - 1990
• Matosinhos - 1990
• Gaia - 1990
• Palmela - 1991
• Albufeira - 1992
• Coimbra - 1993 (a new store opened in 2010 to replace the original one)
• Braga - 1996
• Cascais - 2000
• Faro - 2001
• Leiria - 2003
• Aveiro - 2008

See also

• Makro
• METRO AG
• Metro (supermarket, Greece)
• Metro (supermarket, Indonesia)
• Real (hypermarket)

External links

• Metro International
• Metro Group