Economy
Austrian SPAR denies plans to close stores, UK Tesco may shut more units in Hungary - paper
Local business news site hvg.hu reported on Thursday that SPAR was planning to close 9 to 12 stores in Hungary. SPAR’s communications director has denied the speculation to Magyar Nemzet and said the company was actually planning to open new stores.However, it obtained documents from Tesco’s UK headquarters showing that the planned closure of 13 stores in Hungary, which was announced by the CEO of Tesco’s local arm on Monday, may not be the end of the story here.
The documents analysing the profitability of the Hungarian Tesco unit show that the 13 store slated for closure are those that gave the biggest headache to the group in the country. Purchasing power in the neighbourhood of these units is so slack that they were unable to sell a great deal of the goods before expiry. These stores were making losses already two years ago.
There are another 31 stores in Hungary which have the proverbial ‘Sword of Damocles’ hanging over them, because they have been persistently in the red on operating level.
Magyar Nemzet learned that the parent company could continue to eliminate losses, as headquarters will keep examining where and how further savings could be achieved.
The documents analysing the profitability of the Hungarian Tesco unit show that the 13 store slated for closure are those that gave the biggest headache to the group in the country. Purchasing power in the neighbourhood of these units is so slack that they were unable to sell a great deal of the goods before expiry. These stores were making losses already two years ago.
There are another 31 stores in Hungary which have the proverbial ‘Sword of Damocles’ hanging over them, because they have been persistently in the red on operating level.
Magyar Nemzet learned that the parent company could continue to eliminate losses, as headquarters will keep examining where and how further savings could be achieved.
