Billa is to invest EUR130 million this year in its Austrian store chain. Approximately 100 outlets are being refurbished, while 25 new ones are being built, the Rewe Group-owned supermarket retailer has said. “This way, we will have updated around 80% of our Billa supermarkets to the latest concept by the end of the year,” MD Volker Hornsteiner stated.

Billa keeps looking out for interesting new ranges produced by Austrian SMEs to support its national, regional and local approach. “We are proud that every third product in our range is Austrian – this means 2,400 items per store on average,” board member Josef Siess commented. The Billa-Regional-Regal (Regional Shelf), implemented in May last year, currently offers more than 1,000 regionally different products from nearly 200 local producers.

The recent extension of the online grocery business in the greater Vienna area has resulted in a sales increase of more than 50% over the past months, Billa said. Since the start of the year, same-day delivery and mobile shopping solutions have been added. The retailer claimed this success was down to its early start in e-commerce in 1999.


Source: www.planetretail.net