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Fintech & E-commerce
July 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
Czech online grocery store Rohlik.cz to expand to Bulgaria
Czech online supermarket Rohlik.cz accelerated its expansion into Bulgaria, acquiring a stake for €1mn in the Bulgarian online supermarket eBag. bg, the company announced in its press release on June 25.
“eBag.bg is our first international investment, in which we are investing €1mn. For this, we have acquired a share with the option to buy the rest of the company in the near future,” said founder of Rohlik.cz Tomas Cupr. Gradually, Rohlik.cz plans to acquire a 100% stake in the Bulgarian company.
“We are approaching the expansion in Europe
with great determination. We are evaluating the opportunities of individual markets for entry, and depending on the potential, we will either decide to open our own branch or to start a strategic partnership with an already existing entity. This
is what we have done in Bulgaria, where the renowned eBag online supermarket already operates. It is a market leader and we can support it in its further development,” Cupr noted.
“At eBag.bg, we believe in the same values as Rohlik.cz. Everyone deserves better access to fresh and perfect food. For us, the partnership with Rohlik.cz is a strategic move, which will help us to accelerate the growth and expansion of our company. Investments from Rohlik.cz will enable us to continue improving services for the overall benefit of our customers,” said CEO of the eBag. bg online supermarket Ivan Alexandrov.
Rohlik.cz is an online supermarket that has been delivering grocery orders in Prague, Brno and other cities in the Czech Republic since 2014.
In 2019, Rohlik.cz posted a turnover exceeding €160mn in 2019. It has recorded more than 450,000 customers.
In 2018, the shop recorded its first positive results ever. Its net profit amounted to CZK108,000, while in the previous accounting period the company posted a loss of CZK102mn. This year, according to its owner Cupr, the e-shop should record a turnover of CZK4.5bn.
Earlier in June, Rohlik.cz announced it plans to open a branch in Germany, changing its original plan to expand to the neighbouring country in 2025. Rohlik will become competition for local grocery stores Rewe and Edeka and for Dutch online-only supermarket Picnic which has been on the German market since March 2018.
In December 2019, the company also entered the Hungarian market via Kifli.hu e-shop.
eBag has operated for three years as an internet food shop in cooperation with the Fantastico retail chain. Thanks to this partnership, the portfolio of the eBag. bg assortment reached more than 15,000 FMCG items stored, selected and packed by Fantastico and offered and supplied them to customers through the eBag.bg online platform, which was also responsible for marketing and customer services.