Fourlis Group: Folding in Turkey and investments of 22 million in Greece

of George Lampiris

The Fourlis group, including the real estate management company Trade Estates, has made a total investment of 29 million euros in 2021, which is planned to be listed on the Athens Stock Exchange in 2022, as reported by analysts.

The group’s investment exclusively for retail in 2021 amounts to 22 million euros in nine months.

The largest part of the retail investment concerns the transfer of the logistics center of Intersport from Schimatari, which co-located with Ikea, to the old warehouse of the pre-existing electrical wholesale company of the Fourlis group located in Inofyta.

The aim of the group through the new logistics center is to serve all the countries that have a presence with Intersport, with the investment in this field amounting to 12 million euros.

An important part of this year’s capex concerns the digitization of both systems and infrastructure, as well as staff, as well as stores such as the city store of Ikea Bulgaria, the new store of the chain that will operate in December at The Athens Mall and renovations of Intersport stores.

The stake of Turkey

As for Turkey, a market in which the group is under pressure, maintaining a presence with Intersport, in 2021 reduced its stores from 23 to 12.

These are stores where the group did not see the expected performance and this year will move there to a marginally positive EBIT. As reported in Capital.gr sources close to the company is not a primary goal at the moment to divest out of this country, however if needed it is not something that is unlikely to happen.

In the field related to the new Ikea stores, apart from the Mall, the construction of stores in Heraklion and Patras is planned, while in Patras the possibility of opening city type stores is being considered.

However, they are expected to provide handwritten samples of how the small stores will operate, both in Sofia, Bulgaria and in Piraeus. The mall is considered by the executives of the group a big bet to prove how the concept of small stores works.

In terms of sales in the fourth quarter for the group, October was up compared to the corresponding month of 2019. November showed lower sales by -10 to -12% compared to 2019, as the new measures for Covid – 19 has reduced the number of visitors, while consumers are concerned about their health and are discouraged by the display of such a large number of certificates when entering stores.

Volunteering in Larissa and Ioannina was completed

Finally, the company decided that it had to limit the area of ​​Ikea stores in Ioannina and Larissa from 20,000 sq.m. which was previously, at 10,000 sq.m. today, carrying out a voluntary exit process for redundant staff.

This move was made because when these stores were built the consumer habits were different and the big stores had significant traffic.

However, it was now decided by the group that it had to move to smaller points of sale, implementing the specific move to transform its two stores.