Carrefour has closed its hypermarket in Skopje, the capital of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, with employees claiming that they have not received their salaries since November.
The hypermarket was opened in 2012 in the Skopje City Mall, selling over 35,000 domestic and imported products in a sales area of 4,650 square metres, making it one of the biggest in the country. Around 2,000 of the products were from Carrefour’s private label brands.
Although the store officially closed last week, customers reported empty shelves as early as September with a dwindling number of products available and many cash registers closed. Store employees sent a letter to local media, claiming they had not been paid since November.
According to a report by local TV station, Telma, Carrefour’s debt to local suppliers has reached €10 million. For this reason, the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of more than 50 local companies, has requested that the Macedonian government steps in to resolve the debt problem.
A second Carrefour store was opened in August 2014 in the REM Shopping Mall in Tetovo, but was subsequently closed.
Carrefour’s Macedonian operations were managed by CMB Balkans Skopje, a subsidiary of Greece’s Marinopoulos Group, the exclusive licensee of the Carrefour brands in Greece, Cyprus and the Balkans through franchise.
The news comes only days after France’s Casino Group closed one of its two stores in Serbia, both located in Belgrade. The group’s first store, Casino Supermarché has closed its doors, but the Leader Price store will remain open for the time being.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
