Metro CEO Olaf Koch has told Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung that he believes the new-look Metro Group, comprising Metro on one side and the Ceconomy tech business on the other will "create added value for our customers, employees and shareholders."
In the interview, which was also published on Metro's website, Koch explained that the "primary motivation for the split was a stronger focussing. The two new companies enjoy exciting perspectives, but de facto no overlaps and synergies.
"A conglomerate like the former Metro Group simply did not make sense anymore and so the time for a change had come."
New Focus
Koch outlined that within the new-look Metro wholesale operation, the group will primarily be focusing on the HoReCa trade in Southern and Western Europe, and on smaller retail traders in its Eastern Europe operations.
"In Eastern Europe, small, independent retailers still have a 40 per cent share in total sales in the food retail trade; in Germany by contrast less than ten per cent," he said.
Koch also told the paper that the group was making an effort to increase the level of theatre in its stores. "Just wait and see!," he said. "At locations like Venice our wholesale store is an attractive magnet for the restaurant trade. The gist of the trade business is building up relations."
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
