Billa plans to open 12 new supermarkets in Slovakia in 2017, accelerating its expansion from 2016 when it opened just eight new stores. Revenues increased to €495m last year, up by 5 percent y-o-y, but net profit was cut in half to €2.2m according to the Billa’s 2016 annual report thanks in part to the necessity of creating a financial cushion ahead of a negative re-evalution of its properties. The company’s operational profit rose. In Slovakia, Billa invested €16.4m into new stores and into modernizations of some of its existing ones. In 2017, another 12 stores should get a facelift. Billa plans to open new stores in Žiar nad Hronom, Košice and Nitra and in the Blumental complex in Bratislava. Two of the planned new supermarkets will be in shopping centers, taking over the units left by Hypernova in Centrum in Nitra and Atrium Optima in Košice.
