MAKRO Cash & Carry Hellas opens new store in Volos  

Volos, January 15, 2008 – MAKRO Cash & Carry Hellas, the leading international player in self-service wholesale, inaugurated its 9th store in Greece in Volos. The Mayors of Volos, Nea Ionia and Aisonia alongside with the President and Managing Director of MAKRO Cash & Carry Hellas, Mr. Anastasios Michaelidis, officially cut the ribbon. The new store focuses on professional customers from the food and food related sector. 

The new METRO Cash & Carry store in Volos has sales floor of 4,210 square meters and is located at the 5^th km National Road Volos-Larisa at Marathorema. The main target group of the outlet are professional customers from the food sector, such as hotels, restaurants as well as bars, cafes and caterers. They will be able to choose from a wide assortment covering more than 22,000 different products, of which 20,000 of which is food.

In addition, the new store is easily accessible with a single unified sales floor. There are 153 parking spots, 6 cash registers, a coffee corner, an ATM and payphones in the reception and cash register areas to enhance the customer service. The METRO Cash & Carry outlet in Volos also has the so called ESL system (electronic shelf labeling) for all products, which ensures that there will be no price discrepancy between the shelf and the cash register – an innovation recently applied at the Xanthi store.

“Our specialization on fresh food products, our competitive prices and our commitment to high quality products, are all elements that distinguish and differentiate us,” said Anastasios Michaelidis, President and Managing Director of MAKRO Cash & Carry Hellas. “The new store opens another new chapter in MAKRO’s development. Volos was chosen because of its privileged geographical location, its tourist development and because of the large number of food professionals.”

MAKRO Cash & Carry places great emphasis on the systematic checks on freshness, the continuous quality control along the entire supply chain as well as an educated staff which is the driving force behind the continuous effort to improve the company’s services. The new MAKRO Cash & Carry store in Volos creates more than 80 jobs.

METRO Cash & Carry is represented in 29 countries with more than 600 self-service wholesale stores. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, the company achieved sales of about € 30 billion in 2006. METRO Cash & Carry is a sales division of the METRO Group, one of the most important international retailing and trading companies. In 2006, the group reached sales of about € 60 billion. The company has a headcount of some 257,000 employees and operates about 2,400 outlets in 30 countries. The operating business is performed by the sales brands which operate independently in the market: Metro/Makro Cash & Carry, Real hypermarkets and Extra supermarkets, Media Markt and Saturn – market leader in consumer electronics centers in Europe, and Galeria Kaufhof department stores.

More information at: www.metrogroup.de.

Contact

Despina Kontopoulou                                                                                       
Head of PR and Communications                                                                           
MAKRO Cash & Carry Hellas                                                                                                              
Tel.: +30 210-34 96 508                                                                                   
despina.kontopoulou@makro.gr