METRO is on the right path

METRO Hungary CEO Roland Ruffing knows the Hungarian market very well. His opinion about last year in retail is that despite METRO customers’ complaints about growing costs and decreasing turnover, the company had a successful year thanks to its many new initiatives, e.g. changing the product assortment, better pricing and improved delivery service.

It is true that the drop in domestic consumption caused lots of problems to METRO’s partners and the company reacted to this by helping them with lower prices and by strengthening the relationship with them. METRO updated and diversified its 20,000-item product selection, in certain categories such as wine the company is market leader, it sells a great variety of fresh meat and 70 types of fish. METRO’s delivery service is a huge success, used not only by hotels and restaurants but also by small and medium-sized businesses. They also try to sell more Hungarian products and for this it is inevitable to improve logistics processes together with suppliers, plus quality assurance systems have to be introduced at suppliers’ premises (GFSI or ISO). METRO’s own Horeca Select and RIOBA products offer special quality and packaging to professional chefs and kitchens. Products in the ARO and Fine Food ranges are available at very good prices. At the Customer Academy the company trains and educates partners. Sustainability and environmental protection are also important to the company: recently METRO launched its Conscious Energy Usage Programme