Profi is a chain of

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

and

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lotter ...

s with 1,808 locations in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

owned by

Ahold Delhaize Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. (in Dutch language, Dutch literally "Royal Ahold Delhaize"), commonly known as Ahold Delhaize, is a Dutch-Belgian multinational retail and wholesale holding company. Its name comes from the 2016 merger of two comp ...

History

Belgium and Luxembourg

Profi discount store network was founded in 1979 in Belgium by the Louis Delhaize Group. The supermarket chain consisted of 130 discount supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg. In 2001 to avoid the bankruptcy of chain, Louis Delhaize Group merged Profi with the

Match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

supermarket network and began rebranding 62 supermarkets in Belgium and 14 in Luxembourg in Smatch supermarket, while the rest of the stores were closed.

Hungary

Profi entered in Hungary as the first discount supermarkets chain in 1991. The chain has developed in the eastern half of the country. In November 2012, Louis Delhaize Group sold

and Profi chains in Hungary. From a total of 178 supermarkets, of which 73 Profi discount supermarkets, most of them was sold to local retailers, 62 to

Coop Coop or Co-op most often refer to: * Chicken coop or other animal enclosure * Cooperative or co-operative ("co-op"), an association co-operating for mutual social, economic or cultural benefit ** Consumer cooperative ** Food cooperative ** Housin ...

and 48 to CBA, and other 6 to Penny Market, 4 to

Aldi Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...

, 2 to Pepco and 1 to Spar.

Romania

Louis Delhaize Group opened first discount supermarket in Romania on 29 June 2000, in

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

Banat Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...

, southwestern

. The network was developed in the northwestern part of the country. The 67 discount supermarkets operated in Romania were bought in 2009 and further developed into a nationwide supermarket chain by Polish Enterprise Fund VI (PEF VI), a private equity fund administered by Enterprise Investors (EI). Since 2010, the chain began a rapid growth nationwide. In 2013, the chain opened the first

s under the brand Profi City. In the rural areas were opened supermarkets and from 2015 local shops under the brand Profi Loco. At the end of 2016, before the sale, the network reached 500 locations. In November 2016, Profi was bought by the investing group MEP Retail Investments, part of the Mid Europa Partners, for €533 million. Profi network reached 1000 locations on May 17, 2019. In 2022, Profi reached 1600 stores, of which 800 in Agent management. On October 30 2023,

reached an agreement with Mid Europa Partners to purchase the Profi stores for €1.3 billion.

References

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External links

Profi Romania
Supermarkets of Belgium Supermarkets of Romania