Greece’s Marinopoulos acquires Albanian retailer

TIRANA, March 27 – Greece’s Marinopoulos Group announced this week it has acquired Albanian super market chain Euromax from the local Balfin Group.
“The agreement totally upgrades the presence of the Marinopoulos Group SA in Albania and is part of the overall expansion strategy in the Balkan market,” Marinopoulos said.
The Euromax chain owns 23 stores, 17 of which operate in the capital Tirana.
Marinopoulos expects a combined annual turnover of its entities in Albania of around 40 million euro ($51.3 million) in 2013.
The group’s network in Albania consists of 17 stores in Tirana, two in Durres, two in Fier, one in Vlora, one in Elbassan, and one hypermarket.
In the Balkans, Marinopoulos operates 860 stores, 800 of which in Greece, 16 in Cyprus, 24 in Albania, 17 in Bulgaria, and one in Skopje.
Last January, Balfin Group, led by Albanian businessman Samir Mane, reacquired Euromax retailer, which he founded in 2005 and sold to Delta Group of Serbia in 2008. Mane reacquired the retailer from Delhaize Group, the Brussels-based retail conglomerate, which in mid-2011 entered into an agreement to acquire the Serbian retail company Delta Maxi Group.