Convenience stores

Dutch supermarket chain Spar is returning to Greece following a deal with the local retail group Asteras, after leaving the country in 2015, where it had a presence via the Veropoulos firm since 1969.

Turkey's Competition Authority has approved Migros Ticaret A.Ş.'s acquisition of 95.5 percent of the shares of Tesco Kipa, the purchaser said in a statement late on Feb. 9. 

Competition among different large retail food chains in Croatia - both foreign and domestic - is not resulting in cheaper prices for consumers, Tanja Popovic Filipovic, head of the Centre for Educating and Informing Consumers told BIRN, after the Dutch company entered Croatian retail market.

Turkish retail chain Be?endik, which also owns Real hypermarket stores in the country, has applied for a suspension of bankruptcy, with a court deciding to appoint trustees as a measure.

Tesco's subsidiary in Turkey has decided to hang onto some of its stores instead of selling them to rival Turkish retailer Be?endik after their performance improved strongly, it said on Jan. 2.

Be?endik's chief executive said in September that the company planned to buy 10 stores from Tesco Kipa as part of expansion plans that could ultimately lead to a stock market listing.

UK retailer Marks & Spencer has announced it is pulling out of Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

M&S has 12 stores (employing 106 people) in these five Southeastern European countries, three of them in Bulgaria.

Turkish retail chain Be?endik, which bought 12 stores of Europe's supermarket chain last year, plans to complete the acquisition of 10 Tesco Kipa stores in Turkey by the fourth quarter, as many foreign retail chains have left Turkey in recent years as they had difficulties competing with local players. 

Britain's biggest retailer, supermarket group Tesco, announced April 22 that it had plunged massively into the red last year as it took a hit on the value of its property.

BELGRADE - President and CEO of Belgium's Delhaize Group Muller said Wednesday that the company would invest billions of dinars to expand its network and open hundreds and perhaps even thousands of new jobs in Serbia.

When it comes to our three-year plan for Serbia, we decided to invest billions of dinars to modernize our network of Tempo, Maxi and Shop and Go chains, Muller said.

Delhaize urged to boost share of Serbian products

BELGRADE -- Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić on Tuesday attended the opening of a modern Delhaize Serbia distribution centre in Stara Pazova, near Belgrade.

The 70,000 square meter distribution center, whose construction began in June last year, is an investment worth EUR 50 million.