Over the last 18 months the once-familiar Real supermarkets belonging to the listed Metro AG have been undergoing transformation into outlets under new ownership. The Russian group SCP bought the stores, which then had a turnover of €6.7bn, and since then has been parcelling them out to a number of German-based buyers.
Principal among these has been X+Bricks, in which SCP itself has a major shareholding, and a range of other retailers, chief among them Kaufland, Edeka, Globus 13, and V-Markt. A number of the stores will be permanently closed.
In January SCP confirmed the sale of the remaining 60 stores to a German family office and a group of several ex-managers of Real, who plan to modernise and re-position the properties in a new retail venture.
While X+Bricks is reported to be working on plans to float its consolidated retail holdings, including the SCP assets, via a stock market listing, the established retailers have been integrating the ex-Real stores into their network.
Kaufland, for example, has integrated 58 Real stores with more than 6,200 employees into new Kaufland outlets, including opening in 38 completely new city locations for the group. Over the last 12 months, a total of 325,000 sqm of sales space has been re-developed to fit Kaufland's retail concept.
The buyer of the final 60-unit portfolio is the family office of the Frankfurt law firm AC Tischendorf, led by lawyer Sven Tischendorf and management consultant Annett Tischendorf. The law firm has a history of corporate restructurings, and will apparently be invested with a "three-digit-million" sum to take over the Real rump stores with their 5,000 employees. The stores will continue to be operated under the Real brand.
An article in trade publication Lebensmittelzeitung suggested that an experienced retail partner such as REWE was being lined up to bring in the necessary retail know-how to the stores, which collectively have a turnover of between €700m and €1bn. The ownership is expected to change hands on June 30th this year, assuming approval by the competition authorities.
