Metro Cash & Carry

METRO Cash & Carry

Metro logo
Company type	Private
Industry	Wholesale
Founded	1964
Headquarters	Düsseldorf, Germany
Key people	Frans W.H. Muller, CEO
Products	Cash & Carry Stores
Revenue	€31.7 billion (2007)
Number of employees	~100.000 (2007)
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.

International operations

As of 2007, METRO Cash & Carry has operations in the 29 countries. On May 18 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. METRO cash and carry store was inauguarted in Karachi, Pakistan on 26^th February 2009 by Governer of Sindh Dr. Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan. Hours after its opening score of public stormed in. Many reported difficulty as customers were made to wait unconditionally and, without prior notice, children were not allowed,resulting in general dissapointment. The overall impression of customers leaving the centre was negative.

METRO around the world

Makro logo

METRO in St Petersburg

Country	First Wholesale Center	Number of Wholesale Centers
Germany	1964	123
France	1971	89
Italy	1972	48
Russia	2001	40
China	1996	37
Spain1	1972	34
United Kingdom1	1971	33
Poland1	1994	27
Romania	1996	25
Ukraine	2003	23
Netherlands1	1968	16
Hungary	1994	13
Austria	1971	12
Czech Republic1	1997	12
Turkey	1990	11
Bulgaria	1998	11
Belgium	1970	10
Portugal1	1990	10
Greece1	1992	9
Vietnam	2002	8
Morocco	1991	7
Croatia	2001	6
Denmark	1971	5
Slovakia	2000	5
Serbia	2005	5
India	2003	5
Pakistan	2007	5
Moldova	2004	3
Japan	2002	3
Egypt1	20092	0
Kazakhstan	20092	0

¹ operates under the brand name Makro

² expected opening

Bulgaria

The first two METRO Cash and Carry hypermarkets in Bulgaria opened in Sofia and Plovdiv on 18 March 1998. As of 2006 the company operates ten stores in nine cities:

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

A number of other stores are planned.

India

The first METRO Cash & Carry wholesale center in India opened in Bangalore in 2003. Currently there are 5 wholesale centers in operation, two in Bangalore ^[1] and one in Hyderabad ^[2]which was opened on 30 November 2006 and one in Mumbai.The Mumbai store opened in 2008 in Bhandup. Calcutta ^[3] store has opened up in 2008.

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 Kraków Lublin Łódź Olsztyn	Opole Poznań Rybnik Rzeszów Sosnowiec Szczecin Warsaw (x3) Wrocław Toruń Zabrze Zielona Góra

Romania

File:Metro in Bucharest.JPG

Metro hypermarket in Berceni, Bucharest (April 29, 2008)

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 2008, it operates 25 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	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.

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.

Pakistan

Metro Cash and Carry opened its first wholesale center in the city Lahore on October 31, 2007. Second store was opened in the Pakistan's capital Islamabad on April 03, 2008. The year 2009 marked the opening of three more Metro Cash and Carry centers in Lahore, Karachi, and Faisalabad, bringing the total number of stores at 5. Plan of additional 10 stores are under way.

Ukraine

Dnipropetrovsk (x2) Donetsk (x2) Kharkiv Kryvyy Rih Kiev (x3) Lviv Chernivtsi Odessa (x2) Poltava	Vinnytsia Zaporizhia Luhansk Rivne Ivano-Frankivsk Makiyivka Mariupol Simferopol Mykolayiv

See also

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

External links

• Metro International
• Metro Group