Danish retailer Dansk Supermarket is set to acquire the leases of 81 former Kiwi stores from rival Dagrofa, of which approximately half are going to be converted to Netto outlets.
According to a statement on Dagrofa's website, Dansk Supermarked plans to offload the remainder of the leases to other retail operators.
Dagrofa said that the agreement to offload the stores to Dansk Supermarked 'allows both parties to focus more on their core areas'. Dagrofa in particular is seeking to concentrate on its Meny, Spar, Min Købmand, Let-Køb and FoodService Danmark operations.
Dagrofa added that the move means that it has now found a solution for the 118 Kiwi stores that it announced in May that it was planing to close. Some 27 of the stores will be converted to Meny and Spar outlets, and the remainder will now be offloaded to Dansk Supermarked.
Milestone
The agreement also means that Netto will become the first Danish chain to hit the 500-store mark in the country.
"We are very pleased with the agreement which frees us from all obligations with respect to our Kiwi leases," said Per Thau, chief executive of Dagrofa. "It also means that we can now only focus our resources on those areas where we have our core competencies."
The move is subject to approval from Denmark's Konkurrence- og Forbrugerstyrelsen (competition authority).
© 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
