Spar opens 600th store in Hungary

Retail

Supermarket chain Spar opened its 600th store in Hungary in Vaskút (155 km south of Budapest) yesterday, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.

The new store opened its doors as a member of the Spar franchise network, which is now present in 102 towns across the country.

"Over the years, the franchise system has become a stable, well-established business model and has grown into a closely cooperative relationship system within the company. Through it, Spar supports small local businesses to achieve continuous expansion, business, and operational development. Through this system, Spar's well-known and popular products and services, which are primarily sourced from domestic sources, are reaching an ever wider range of consumers," said Zsolt Szalay, managing director of sales at Spar Hungary.

There are four distinct store types within the company's franchise system: at the moment, 33 Spar partners, 60 Spar markets, 85 OMV-Spar expresses, and 43 Lukoil-DeSpars welcome customers.

"Of the company's annual turnover of HUF 738.9 billion last year - an increase of 8.7% - the franchise business accounted for more than HUF 67 bln. This significant contribution to the total turnover is due to the work of around 1,800 employees," emphasized Gabriella Heiszler, managing director of Spar Hungary.

The partnership offers a number of benefits, Zsolt Szalay said. After entry, an important starting point is interior and exterior renewal: a bright, spacious and clean sales area is created, old machinery and equipment will be replaced with new ones, and the cooling, heating and lighting technology will be modernized with environmental considerations in mind".

According to Heiszler, customers will benefit from a wide range of quality products to take home: the franchise stores will also offer a wide range of high-quality, fresh, and affordable meat products from Spar Regnum's meat plants, as well as convenience products from the Spar enjoy convenience plant in Anvilő.

Csaba Vörös, the owner of the family shop in Vaskút, said that there are brands that already carry a certain quality, guarantee, and reliability in their name, which means that they are a constant and a point of reference for people.

On the benefits, he stressed, "The most important part of the partnership program is that the operating model that Spar offers - the delivery of goods, the IT and the consultancy support - allows us as owners to launch, oversee, monitor and hopefully profit from a new, very serious business while still having time to continue with our current work and life."

Vörös is also pleased that being a member of the partner network, which brings a qualitative leap forward, will also give him the opportunity to sell goods that are popular with the villagers, such as homemade products from the local and neighboring bakery or the family's own garden and orchard.

The chain will continue to expand its network in the future, planning to open 20-22 stores a year.

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