Billa (supermarket)

BILLA (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪla] ⓘ) is an Austrian supermarket chain that operates in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.[1] The company was founded by Karl Wlaschek in 1953. He sold his controlling interest to Germany's REWE Group in 1996.[2]

For other uses, see Billa.
Billa AG
TypePrivate
IndustryRetail
Founded1953 (1953)
HeadquartersWiener Neudorf, Lower Austria, Austria
Number of locations
3,645 stores (2014)
Key people
Robert Nagele,
Elke Wilgmann
ProductsSupermarkets
RevenueIncrease € 13.02 billion (2014)
OwnerREWE International AG
Number of employees
76,174 (2014)
Websitewww.billa.at
Billa at Vienna airport
Billa flagship store in Vienna

History

In 1953, Karl Wlaschek opened a discount perfume shop in the Vienna district of Margareten called WKW (Warenhandel Karl Wlaschek, translatable as Karl Wlaschek Trading). By 1960 WKW had 45 stores in Austria. In 1961 the chain was renamed Billa, a portmanteau of "billiger Laden", German for 'cheap shop',[3] started selling food and went over to self-service. In 1965 the company had grown to 109 stores. REWE Group acquired Billa in 1996.[4]

Present locations

Billa operates stores in four European countries:

Country No. of stores
Austria 1,102
Czech Republic 236
Bulgaria 149
Slovakia 145

Austria

Austria is the chain's home market. As of March 2019 Billa had 1,069 stores in the country, second only to SPAR's 1,538.

Czech Republic

The first Billa supermarket in the Czech Republic was opened in Stránského Street, Brno, on 26 October 1991. The company has 215 stores in the country and employs over 6,000 staff. Billa stores have an average sales area of 900 m2.[5]

Slovakia

Billa opened its first store in Slovakia in 1993.[6]

Bulgaria

The company opened its first supermarket in Bulgaria in 2000 and has since then expanded to cover 44 Bulgarian cities, operating a total of 149 supermarkets as of April 2023.[7]

Former locations

Billa operated in other countries in the past.

Country No. of stores Sold to Year sold
Russia 161 Lenta 2021[8]
Italy 136 Carrefour (53)
Conad (50)
others (33)		 2014[9][10][11]
Romania 86 Carrefour 2015[12]
Croatia 62 Spar 2016[13]
Ukraine 35 Novus 2020[14][15]
Hungary 21 Spar 2002[16][17]
Poland 14 E.Leclerc 2009[18]

Russia

The first Billa supermarket in Russia opened in 2004. In 2008, the network for the first time went outside of Moscow. In the same year, thirteen Yum-Yum supermarkets in Moscow were purchased.

In 2012, Billa bought the Russian supermarket chain Citistor (part of the former Ramstor chain).

Since 2008, all new Rewe Group stores in Russia in the "supermarket" format have been opened not under the Billa brand, but under the Biop (Billa Operations) brand. The reason is that only Billa Russia LLC had the right to develop the Billa brand in Russia, but one of the partners (22.5%) — the Russian holding "Marta" - since the end of 2008 stopped investing in the development of the company due to the beginning of the bankruptcy procedure. In June 2010, this package was purchased from "Marta".

On January 27, 2011, the official renaming of all the stores of the Biop chain to the Bill stores took place In 2018, 151 Billa stores were opened in Russia. In 2021, before the deal with Lenta, there were 161 stores operating across Russia mostly in Moscow and surrounding cities.[19] The holding company Lenta LLC announced on May 18 that it had struck a deal to acquire the supermarkets business of Billa Russia GmbH for 215 millions € in cash.[8]

Ukraine

The first BILLA supermarket in Ukraine was opened on February 3, 2000, in Kyiv. Over the next 14 years, the company developed actively — in 2014, the number of its stores reached 39. BILLA supermarkets were represented in 16 cities in 9 regions of the country.

Since 2015, the number of supermarkets has started to decrease. In June 2017, the company announced the sale of 9 of its stores in the regions at once. As of September 2017, the chain of supermarkets of the Austrian concern has decreased to 17 supermarkets, of which 12 were in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, two each in Dnipro and Odesa, and 1 in Zhytomyr.

In March 2019, there were 30 BILLA supermarkets in Ukraine.[20]

On September 16, 2020, it became known that the Austrian company "Rewe International AG" sold the Ukrainian chain of supermarkets to the Lithuanian company Consul Trade House UAB, the founder of Novus Ukraine LLC.[21][22]

See also

References
  1. "Unternehmen & Märkte « Archiv «". Wirtschaftsblatt.at. 2006-05-30. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  2. "Rewe of Germany Buys Austrian Grocery Chain". New York Times. 18 July 1996. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  3. "Billa, sagt der Hausverstand". Billa.at. Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  4. Jandrasits, Franz (1 June 2015). "Billa-Gründer Karl Wlaschek ist tot (Billa founder Karl Wlaschek is dead)". Kurier (in German). Vienna: Telekurier Online Medien GmbH & Co KG. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  5. https://www.billa.cz/specialfolder/footer/o-nas Billa homepage: "About us" (in Czech)
  6. https://www.billa.sk/specialfolder/footer/o-spolocnosti/kto-sme Billa homepage: "Who we are" (in Slovak)
  7. "BILLA откри нов магазин във Варна - Economy.bg".
  8. "Russian supermarket business rapidly consolidating as Lenta buys Billa Russia to become second-largest chain in Moscow". www.intellinews.com. 2021-05-19. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  9. "Rewe sells Billa supermarkets in Italy". Fresh Plaza. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  10. "Carrefour buys 53 Billa supermarkets in Italy from Rewe". Reuters. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  11. "Rewe sells further Billa stores to Conad". IGD Retail Analysis. Institute of Grocery Distribution. 11 September 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  12. "Romania: French Carrefour supermarket chain buys Billa Romania, owned by German Rewe group". New Europe. Associated Press. 22 December 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  13. Garaca, Maja (16 December 2016). "Spar Hrvatska acquires 62 Billa stores". SeeNews. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  14. "Официально. Novus приобрел Billa: начинается процесс слияния". LIGA (in Russian). 2020-12-01. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  15. "Archived copy". www.billa.ua. Archived from the original on 2021-03-04. Retrieved 2021-03-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "SPAR acquires 13 Billa stores in Hungary". JustFood. 1 November 2002. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  17. "Ungarische Billa-Märkte wurden an Spar verkauft". Wiener Zeitung (in German). 12 September 2002. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  18. "Rewe Group sells supermarkets in Poland to E.Leclerc". FoodBev Media. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  19. «Билла» открыла 151 магазин в России.
  20. "BILLA | Магазини". 2020-10-31. Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
  21. "Зачем Novus купил сеть Billa, или Печальные приключения австрийцев в Украине. FMCG, Идеи и Кейсы - новости бизнеса Украины". 2020-09-21. Archived from the original on 2020-09-21. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
  22. "Сеть супермаркетов Billa уходит из Украины, ее приобретает Novus". 2020-10-25. Archived from the original on 2020-10-25. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
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