Kritikos: New acquisition of SYNPA brings it to 500 million euros

By Giorgos Lampiris

The acquisition of the supermarket group Collaborating Grocers is proceeding according to exclusive and cross-referenced information of Capital.gr ANEDHK Kritikos, which in this way now reaches 500 million euros in turnover and essentially reaches Galaxia (503.64 million euros the turnover of 2021), which moves at these levels in terms of turnover.

The agreement concerns the acquisition of around 50 privately-owned stores owned by the Synergiamos Pantopoles group as well as the management of the Helios, Proodos and Hellenic Market brands, which operate under the franchise regime and it is a wide network that measures approx. 250 stores under this model.

According to the same information, the two sides have agreed on everything and now only the final signatures remain, which, barring a serious emergency, will happen within the next few days.

There are 186 supermarkets under the Hellenic Market label, of which 157 are franchised and 29 corporate. In December 2021, Collaborating Grocers and 7 Symeonidis stores in Polykastro and Kilkis joined the group’s potential through an acquisition it carried out. Accordingly, the Proodos network controls 149 stores, of which 148 are franchises and one company, Helios, 51 stores. On top of that, it also has the Quick stores, with activity in the field of small retail, tobacco and snacks and coffee in hand.

In terms of geographical distribution, the Synergiazomeni Grocers group maintains a presence from Volos to Alexandroupoli, Messolonghi, Agrinio and Ioannina, as well as Crete. Today, its network of stores is supported by three distribution centers, two in Thessaloniki with an area of ​​3,500 sq m and 2,500 sq m respectively, and one in Messolonghi, which has been operating since last October in a rented area of ​​2,000 sq m.

This is a move that brings the Cretan one step higher in the ranking of supermarket chains, while at the same time gaining a strong foothold in Northern Greece, a geographical area in which the company was eager to expand its activity. It should be noted that the Cooperating Grocers in 2020 had a turnover of 84 million euros, while in 2021 they reached 100 million euros.

This particular development also brings new reorganizations for the ELOMAS group, of which the Cooperating Grocers are a member, while their head and owner of the business, Yannis Pilidis, is a member of the management committee that has management duties in the shopping group. With the acquisition of the Associated Grocers by Kritikos, one more of the large chains of the ELOMAS group will leave the scheme after the previous ones of Kritikos, Bazaar and SYNKA, with the latter recently forming a joint company with Masoutis and creating a joint scheme with a turnover of 1.1 billion euros.

It is recalled that Kritikos had made smaller-scale acquisition moves in Northern Greece, such as that of MAKO of Kostas Malamidis in Northern Greece in 2019. MAKO was preceded by the acquisition of the Hyper Grigoriadis chain with activity in the prefectures of Kastoria, Kozani and Florina.