The SPAR supermarket chain leaves the Czech Republic

The Dutch SPAR supermarket chain leaves the Czech Republic. Their stores will be bought by the Austrian Ahold company for 5.245 billion crowns – the SPAR announced on Tuesday on its Czech website.

If the transaction will be approved by the Czech competition authority, which is likely, the Ahold will be the largest retail network in the Czech Republic.

The Ahold will take over 50 large stores – including 36 hypermarkets (Interspar) and 14 supermarkets (Spar) – from Spar.

Spar revenue last year exceeded 12 billion crowns. However, the chain has been loss-making for some years. Last year’s loss amounted to 545 million crowns, and 608 million crowns in 2012. (Kokes János, MTI)