Ahold has completed the redesign and re-branding of 35 Interspar hypermarkets it acquired last year. The last of the stores, which now trade under the Alberts brand, opens today in Ostrava Poruba. A smaller network of Spar supermarkets were transformed already last fall. In all Ahold invested €50m into the merger. Ahold’s head of the Czech Republic Jesper Lauridsen told Hospodářské noviny that the company still plans to pour hundreds of millions of crowns into modernization of its older outlets.
He also said that the retailer will reduce the non-food assortment in its stores. The Czech antimonopoly office forced Ahold to close five of its stores following the merger, but it has also opened two new supermarkets in Prague 4 and in Černošice outside Prague. The retailer plans to open another hypermarket during March in Kladno.
