MCC Bulgaria: METRO Cash & Carry opens new store in Pleven

Pleven, October 15, 2008 – Today METRO Cash & Carry, the international leading player in self-service wholesale, opened its new store in Pleven. In total METRO Cash & Carry is now present in ten locations in Bulgaria.

”The METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store in Pleven will provide professional customers such as hotels, restaurants as well as small and mid-sized retailers with assortments and services perfectly tailored to their needs,” says Willi Beisheim, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Bulgaria. “Hence, we are convinced that the outlet will mean a big benefit for our professional customers in Bulgaria.”

The new store has a sales area of about 7.500 square meters, provides 400 free car parking units and extended opening hours (daily from 7 to 21h). The product range covers up to 60.000 high quality food and nonfood articles at competitive wholesale prices. With the extension of the destination areas (fruits & vegetables, fish, meat, dairy, wine, office supplies, seasonal & media products) and the complementation of the premium assortment, METRO Cash & Carry Bulgaria offers its professional customers everything they need under one roof. Moreover, the company offers exceptional consultancy at commercial consultancy service professional customers can find out more about commerce rules.  By this means, METRO Cash & Carry helps its professional customers to modernize their businesses, boost sales and restructure their store management in compliance with HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point), a food safety system required within the European Union. In this way the company’s customers can increase their competitiveness and thereby strengthen their own business.

The new METRO Cash & Carry store gives direct employment to 200 people from the local community. On average a new METRO Cash & Carry store is an investment of BGN 40 million (about € 20 million).

METRO Cash & Carry is represented in 29 countries with more than 600 self-service wholesale stores. With about 100,000 employees worldwide, the company achieved sales of almost € 31.7 billion in 2007. METRO Cash & Carry is a sales division of the METRO Group, one of the most important international retailing and trading companies. In 2007, the group reached sales of around € 64 billion. The company has a headcount of some 270,000 employees and operates about 2,400 outlets in 31 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

Contacts:
Elena Simeonova
Company Communications Manager
METRO Cash & Carry Bulgaria
Phone   9762 205
Fax      9762 204
e-mail: Elena.simeonova@metro.bg
www.metro.bg