Metro Cash and Carry

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METRO Cash & Carry
Type	Private
Founded	1964
Headquarters	Düsseldorf, Germany
Key people	Frans W.H. Muller, CEO
Industry	Wholesale
Products	Cash & Carry Stores
Revenue	▲ €29.9 billion (2006)
Employees	100.000 (2006)
Website	www.metro-cc.com

METRO Cash & Carry is the international leader in self-service wholesale operating across Europe and in some countries of Asia and Northern Africa. It is the largest sales division of the German trade and retail giant METRO AG.

METRO Cash & Carry is different from large retail chains such as Billa and Carrefour in that its stores are primarily targeted towards professional customers rather than end consumers. The cash-and-carry concept is based around self-service and bulk buying. To be able to shop at METRO customers need to be duly registered and be issued a card which shows that they are eligible to buy at METRO Cash & Carry. METRO Cash & Carry's customers include retailers, hotels, restaurants, caterers and other business professionals.

Contents 1 International operations 1.1 Bulgaria 1.2 India 1.3 Pakistan 1.4 Poland 1.5 Romania 1.6 Serbia 1.7 Ukraine 2 See also 3 External links

[edit] International operations

As of 2007, METRO Cash & Carry has operations in the 29 countries. On May 18th 2008, METRO Cash & Carry announced its market entry into Egypt under the MAKRO brand name. The first wholesale center is expected to open late 2009.

Country	First Wholesale Center	Number of Wholesale Centers
Germany	1964	122
France	1971	86
Italy	1972	48
Russia	2001	37
China	1996	35
Spain1	1972	34
United Kingdom1	1971	33
Poland1	1994	26
Romania	1996	23
Ukraine	2003	18
Netherlands1	1968	16
Hungary	1994	13
Austria	1971	12
Czech Republic1	1997	12
Belgium1	1970	10
Portugal1	1990	10
Turkey	1990	11
Greece1	1992	8
Bulgaria	1999	9
Vietnam	2002	8
Morocco	1991	6
Croatia	2001	6
Denmark	1971	5
Slovakia	2000	5
Serbia	2005	5
Japan	2002	3
India	2003	4
Moldova	2004	3
Pakistan	2007	2
Egypt1	20092	0

¹ operates under the brand name Makro

² expected opening

[edit] Bulgaria

The first two METRO Cash and Carry hypermarkets in Bulgaria opened in Sofia and Plovdiv on 18 March 1999. As of 2006 the company operates nine stores in seven cities:

• Sofia (x2)
• Plovdiv
• Ruse
• Varna
• Stara Zagora
• Burgas
• Blagoevgrad
• Pleven (under construction)
• Veliko Tarnovo

A number of other stores are planned.

[edit] India

The first METRO Cash & Carry wholesale center in India opened in Bangalore in 2003. Currently there are 4 wholesale centers in operation, two in Bangalore ^[1] and one in Hyderabad ^[2]which was opened on 30th November 2006 and one in Mumbai.The Mumbai store opened in 2008 in Bhandup. Calcutta ^[3] plans are underway.

[edit] Pakistan

METRO Cash & Carry announced its operations in Pakistan in January 2006 with an investment of €15 million per wholesale center. The company plans to open wholesale centers in all major cities of the country in the medium term. These cities include Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Hyderabad.

The first METRO Cash & Carry Pakistan wholesale center opened on Multan Road, Lahore near Thokar Niaz Beg (WikiMapia) on October 31st 2007. The opening ceremony (held on October 30th 2007) was presided by the Chief Minister of the Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

METRO Cash & Carry Pakistan opened its next wholesale center in Islamabad (Wikimapia) on the 3rd of April, 2008.[4]

[edit] Poland

The first Makro Cash and Carry shop was opened in Warsaw, Sosnowiec and Łódź in 1994. Now the copmany has 25 stores in:

Białystok Bielsko-Biała Bydgoszcz Częstochowa Tricity (x2) Kalisz Katowice Kielce Koszalin (planned) Kraków Lublin Łódź Olsztyn	Opole Poznań Rybnik Rzeszów Sosnowiec Szczecin Warsaw (x3) Wrocław Toruń Zabrze Zielona Góra

[edit] Romania

METRO Cash and Carry was one of the first international food and non-food retail chains to enter the Romanian market, opening its first store in Bucharest, near Henri Coandă International Airport.

As of 2007, it operates 23 stores in major cities across the country and is one of the most well-known chains. Metro has stores in the following cities:

Arad Bucharest (x4) Bacău Baia Mare Braşov (x2) Botoşani (planned) Cluj-Napoca Constanţa (x2) Craiova Deva (planned)	Galaţi Iaşi Oradea Piteşti Ploieşti Sibiu Suceava Târgu Mureş Timişoara (x2)

The supermarket in Oradea is one of the most successful of the branches and has been especially popular with Hungarians, who are crossing the border to buy products from the hypermarket since prices are significantly cheaper in Romania than in Hungary. This phenomenon has mainly started since Hungary joined the European Union, an occurrence which has increased prices in Hungary.

[edit] Serbia

The first Metro Cash and Carry store in Serbia opened in Belgrade in 2005. As of 2006 the company operates five stores in four cities:

• Belgrade (x2)
• Kragujevac
• Novi Sad
• Niš

Belgrade stores are located in Zemun and Krnjača.

[edit] Ukraine

Dnipropetrovsk (x2) Donetsk (x2) Kharkiv Kryvyy Rih Kyiv (x3) Lviv	Odesa Poltava Vinnytsia Zaporizhia Luhansk Rivne

[edit] See also

• METRO AG
• Makro
• Real
• METRO (supermarket, Cyprus)
• Metro (supermarket, Egypt)
• Metro (supermarket, Greece)
• Metro (supermarket, Indonesia)

[edit] External links

This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page. This article has been tagged since August 2007.

• Metro International
• Metro Group