Ten largest retailers raise 2008 sales by 8%

The ten largest retail chains in Czech Republic raised sales by Kc23.2bn year-on-year to a record Kc312.2bn in 2008, according to preliminary results released by analytical company Incoma Research and magazine Moderní obchod.

 Hypermarkets Kaufland and discount
shops Lidl from German group Schwarz generated the biggest sales
volumes last year. The Tesco chain came second in terms of sales,
followed by Ahold which runs hypermarkets Hypernova and supermarkets
Albert.

The domestic market has been dominated
by hypermarkets in the long term and last year, 39 percent of Czech
households were buying food products mostly in them. Their share grew
by one percentage point compared with 2007.

The popularity of discount outlets
stagnated at 25 percent last year and the popularity of supermarkets
stayed at 16 percent. Smaller self-services were picked by 25 percent
and market stalls by 12 percent of Czech households.