Holland & Barrett: When does the new retail venture for the Fourlis group start?

By George Lampiris

In the fourth quarter of 2022, based on the existing planning, the new Holland & Barrett stores will start operating in Greece, through the cooperation with the Fourlis group, which became known at the beginning of January, according to sources close to the company. The new step in the retail sector on the part of the group aims to develop a network of 120 physical stores in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, at least based on the initial design. The operation of the first physical stores in our country will take place simultaneously with the start of operation of the eshop as reported by the same sources.

Within 2023 the development of the first stores in Bulgaria and Romania

The UK-based Holland & Barrett is a retailer of health and wellness products, such as high nutritional value and nutritional supplements. Based on the existing plan, 2-3 stores in Attica are expected to operate initially by the end of this year. It should be noted that the development plan of the branch network has a time horizon of five years. The Fourlis Group is scheduled to start operating through Holland & Barrett stores in Bulgaria and Romania in 2023. The development of retail stores will take place either through autonomous high-traffic points as well as through shopping malls.

In addition to packaged branded products of Holland & Barrett, its code will also include products of producers and well-known companies, some of which are made in Greece, especially in the field of food supplements.

Warehousing and distribution service through the logistics center of the subsidiary Trade Logistics

The service of the network of stores and the eshop in Greece will be realized through the logistics center of the company Trade Logistics, a subsidiary of the Fourlis group. It should be reminded that the group recently made a total investment of 11 million euros in the old electrical installations of the Fourlis group in a property located in the area of ​​Inofyta, which among other things already serves the needs of the sports industry (Intersport and The Athlete’s Foot ). This logistics center has a total area of ​​about 25,000 sq.m.

The Holland & Barrett group in the last financial year of 2020 had sales of 727.4 million pounds in Great Britain, while it employs more than 7,000 people in the countries in which it operates, including – apart from Great Britain – Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium , China, Hong Kong, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Holland & Barrett was founded in 1870 by Alfred Slapps Barrett and Major William Holland, who bought a grocery store in Bishop’s Stortford, selling groceries and clothing. On June 26, 2017, it became known that after several discussions and expressions of interest made by investors, Holland & Barrett was sold for 1.8 billion pounds to L1 Retail, which is controlled by the Russian billionaire oligarch, Mikhail Fridman.