50 YEARS OF SUCCESS

The delivery service is one of the most important success stories in the ongoing refinement of the sales concept. The company generates sales of more than €2 billion a year with this service.

METRO Cash & Carry opened its 750th store worldwide in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing.

With annual sales of €31.6 billion and 743 locations in 29 countries, METRO Cash & Carry has further strengthened its position of the leading international self-service wholesaler. In the same year, METRO Cash & Carry sells its MAKRO wholesale operations in the UK.

METRO Cash & Carry celebrated the opening of its 700th store, located in Istanbul. The company began to sell selected products online in some countries.

METRO Cash & Carry launched its innovative Trader Franchise Programme in Poland and later rolled out the concept to Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia. Also new, the Trader Support & Partnership Programme supports independent food retailers through such initiatives as seminars and training.

METRO Cash & Carry proved its power to innovate with a new format: the City Centre Store in Paris is geared towards Horeca customers. During the same year, METRO Cash & Carry opened its first wholesale store in Egypt.

Additional new concepts included six own brands that the company uses to systematically focus on its target groups.

The business model was further expanded this year. In Germany, METRO Cash & Carry first tested the delivery service, which is now offered in 29 countries.

METRO Cash & Carry opened its first store in the business metropolis Lahore.

With the opening of a new store in Aalborg, the company set new environmental and energy-saving standards by using innovative technologies.

Forty years after the founding of METRO Cash & Carry, the company had become a leading international self-service wholesaler with more than 500 wholesale stores in 27 countries, including Moldova since 2004.

METRO Cash & Carry also continued to expand outside Europe: in 2002, in Japan and Vietnam, and in 2003 in India. In addition, the company opened its first wholesale store in Ukraine. METRO Cash & Carry India and METRO Cash & Carry Vietnam supported suppliers and employees with special regional development programmes like farmers' training.

The huge distances in Russia posed new logistics tasks for the company: Shipping goods through the Russian plains and mountains can take up to six days. Nevertheless, the METRO brand soon succeeds in the boosting Russian economy. The self-service wholesaler also began to do business in Croatia.

Three new stores were opened in Slovakia right at the turn of the new century.

METRO Cash & Carry expanded its business in Romania in 1996 and in the Czech Republic in 1997. Also in 1997, METRO Cash & Carry bought out the European MAKRO operations from Dutch SHV.

The Asko-Gruppe, which has owned C+C SCHAPER since 1987/1988, joined METRO GROUP. C+C Schaper does business exclusively in Germany.

As the first international wholesaler in China, METRO received permission to expand throughout the country. Working with the Joint Venture partner Jinjiang Group, METRO opened its first store in Shanghai. Today, METRO Cash & Carry has 3.8 million customers in 75 stores across the country.

After the Iron Curtain fell, a new growth market emerged for METRO Cash & Carry. The company launched its expansion in Eastern Europe with the opening of new wholesale stores in Poland and Hungary.

By entering the Greek market, METRO Cash & Carry was now doing business in nearly all European Community (EC) member states.

In the early 1990s, METRO Cash & Carry opened its first wholesale store in Morocco. The company exited the Moroccan market in 2010.

At the beginning of the1990s, METRO Cash & Carry expanded its portfolio of locations in the Mediterranean region, opening stores in Portugal and Turkey: As one of the first German companies in Turkey, METRO Cash & Carry received certification for food standards.

The right products in the right place at the right time: METRO Cash & Carry was one of the first wholesalers in Germany to systematically manage its inventory electronically. This approach made it possible to record sales data and inventories on a daily basis.

Computers began to take on a bigger and bigger role during the 1980s. Essen in Germany is among the cities where METRO Cash & Carry started offering the state-of-the-art office equipment, including expert assistance.

By opening several stores in Spain and Italy, the self-service wholesaler expanded to the Mediterranean region.

METRO opened stores in Great Britain, France, Austria and Denmark – some under the MAKRO brand name.

The first MAKRO store was opened in Belgium. At the time, the wholesaler was already operating 13 METRO stores in Germany. Today, the MAKRO store network is well developed: in Belgium, no customer is more than 30 minutes away from a MAKRO store.

METRO Cash & Carry concluded an agreement with the Dutch company Steenkolen Handelsvereeniging and opened the first store outside Germany in the Netherlands under the brand name MAKRO.

The METRO Cash & Carry (MCC) company was established in 1964. In that year, the first full scale METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store opened in Mülheim an der Ruhr with selling space of 14,000 square metres. That was a new dimension in food and non-food wholesale. The MCC company was founded by the two brothers Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck and Erwin Schmidt as well as the Schell family, owner of a wholesale company for electrical appliances. Soon, Otto Beisheim was nominated as the managing director of METRO-SB-Großmärkte GmbH & Co. KG.