Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma29/02/2016 00:00
TW
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Eroski has sold two of its hypermarkets in Majorca, those in Sa Coma and Son Cotoner, to Carrefour, which will assume the contracts of store personnel and envisages retaining all the current employees.

This divestment by Eroski is part of a strategic plan to strengthen business priorities and develop a new network of urban supermarkets. Eroski has at present 198 supermarkets in addition to its online business in Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza.

The sale of the stores is included within a batch of up to 36 hypermarkets in various parts of Spain. The agreement, however, is subject to approval by the National Competition Commission. Meanwhile, the two stores will be operating as normal.

The general director of the commercial network of the Basque supermarket chain, Rosa Carabel, is stressing that the Balearics is a priority region for Eroski, which opened fifteen new stores last year. During the current year, the company will continue remodelling the existing network and transforming them with the new business model "contigo" (with you). In stores that have so far been remodelled, there has been a 7% increase in sales per square metre.

The fifteen franchised supermarkets that opened in 2015 had more than 2.2 million euros of investment and generated 90 jobs. Across Spain, Eroski has a network of 53 hypermarkets and 1,288 supermarkets, of which 467 are franchised, as well as nineteen cash and carry stores. The company's expansion strategy, which involved the opening of 95 stores in all last year, is focused on a format of local supermarkets with a new, highly competitive business model.