Slovenia’s Mercator to enter Albania

SOFIA, July 10ؓlovenia’s largest food retailer, Mercator, plans to open its first hypermarket in Albania in the last quarter of 2009 and enter the market of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in three years’ time as part of its expansion in southeast Europe.
“In Albania we signed a lease agreement for a Hypermarket and Intersport store in City Park shopping mall in the vicinity of Tirana. The analysis of the market potential is done and it showed that there is definitely room for us in Albania and we will expand there,” Gospodaric said.
“It is going to be our standard format – a hypermarket in a shopping mall in Tirana,” Gospodaric said but disclosed no details about the mall or its cost.
Mercator also plans to enter Albania’s eastern neighbor, FYROM, “Ʃn three years’ timeŢ Gospodaric said without elaborating.
Outside Slovenia, Mercator is present in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia. In addition to Albania and FYROM, Mercator also plans to enter Kosovo. It has a network of 1,426 retail stores in all of its countries of operation.
The group said it had invested 300 million euro in 2008 and plans to invest close to 195 million euro by the end of 2009, while also keeping yearly investments to 220-260 million euro by 2012.
It recorded a net profit of 40.6 million euro in 2008 and expects net profit in 2009 to drop to 30 million euro.