Spain’s Grupo DIA, which operates the Minipreço and Clarel stores in Portugal, has indicated that it may have to exit the country.
The company may have to reduce its staff count in the country by 2,100 employees and is asking PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for assistance in keeping the number of redundancies to a minimum by identifying stores to sell off, reports Portugal’s Jornal de Negocios.
The consultancy is in charge of finding buyers for as many stores as possible, according to the paper.
PwC has also been presented with a similar task with regard to DIA's cash and carry business, Max Descuento, the sale of which will raise €50 million.
A shareholders' meeting at the group's Spanish headquarters is scheduled for 19 and 20 March and if the proposed capital increase of €600 million, pre-guaranteed by Morgan Stanley, is not successful, Grupo DIA will have consider selling operations outside Spain that are not indispensable, reports Spanish daily Expansión.
In Portugal, Grupo DIA has 532 stores trading under the banners Minipreço and Clarel, of which 223 are directly owned and 309 franchised.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
