Billa brand should disappear from the market by the end of 2017, according to the agreement between Carrefour and Rewe group, the owner of the Billa supermarket chain in Romania until the end of 2015. At about 80 stores and ten months remaining of this year, the reopening might progress at a pace of 8 to 10 stores a month.
French-held Carrefour group took over the Billa’s supermarket chain in Romania in an about EUR100 million deal in December 2015. The Competition Council approved the move last summer, provided that several conditions were met. After securing the competition watchdog approval, Carrefour announced it would rebrand all the Billa stores so the brand would disappear from the Romanian market by the end of 2017.
“The stores will operate as Carrefour and the supermarkets will retain the best of both brands (Carrefour and Billa) inside,” Jean Baptiste Dernoncourt, the chief executive of Carrefour Romania, said a few months ago.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)