Eroski
Encyclopedia
Eroski is a Spanish supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chain with nearly 1,000 outlets spread across Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 (excluding franchises).
It is run as a worker-consumer hybrid
Worker-consumer hybrid
A Worker-consumer hybrid cooperative is, as the name implies, a mix of the two more common forms of cooperatives, the worker cooperative and the consumer cooperative. In this type of cooperative the power is divided between the workers and consumers...

 co-operative within the Mondragón Corporation group.
The establishments vary in size from the largest hypermarkets, simply named 'Eroski' (of which there are 75 stores, including 40 with petrol stations), down to smaller 'Eroski Center' stores (473, including 2 petrol stations). There are also 219 'Eroski City' outlet
Outlet
Outlet may mean:* An electrical outlet* An outlet store or outlet mall* The pelvic outlet* A type of instance variable used for graphical user interface programming in the OpenStep / Cocoa environment* Outlet, Ontario, a community in Canada...

s and 234 'Eroski Viajes' travel agent centres. The group's total sales floor space is approximately 1500000 square metres (1,793,985 sq yd)

History

The company was founded in 1969 in the regions of Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

 and Gipuzkoa in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 as a co-operative between ten supermarkets in the region. Its headquarters located in Elorrio
Elorrio
Elorrio is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, northern Spain.-Geography:...

, Biscay.

Franchises

Aliprox supermarkets are not owned by Eroski, despite having a similar logo. Instead, Aliprox is the brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

 for franchises
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....

. These outlets are independently owned, but still maintain the same product ranges, sales policies and general standard expected throughout the company. There are presently 553 franchised outlets.

Finances

  • The group's profits
    Profit (economics)
    In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...

     in 2004 reached €129 million.
  • This compares to €70 million in 2000.
  • Nearly €2 billion has been invested
    Investment
    Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...

     since 2000 on opening new stores.

Staff

  • In 2004, staff numbers exceeded 30,000 for the first time.
  • Nearly 7,000 new positions have been created in the last four years.

Growth

Brand

These names replace the former hierarchy of 'Eroski', 'Maxi', 'Consum' and 'Charter', the latter of which was the name reserved for smaller franchise stores. This rebranding
Rebranding
Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors....

 took place during the course of 2003-2004 in an effort to re-focus the company as the many different names confused customers. Indeed, regardless of the name over the door, customers inevitably referred to the shops as 'Eroski', not Maxi or Charter. Under the new name, consumers are referring to the company correctly.

France

Having taken a strong grip over the Spanish mainland, especially in the Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

 from where the company originates. It is now expanding into France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. They have three hypermarket
Hypermarket
In commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full groceries lines and general merchandise...

s, eighteen supermarkets and seven petrol stations in the country at this time.

Alongside this, they also own the Forum Sport store chain, 172 perfume
Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...

 shops and six cash and carry
Cash and carry (wholesale)
Cash and carry wholesale represents a type of operation within the wholesale sector. Its main features are summarized best by the following definitions:...

 outlets.

A merger with the Valencia
Valencia (city in Spain)
Valencia or València is the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third largest city in Spain, with a population of 809,267 in 2010. It is the 15th-most populous municipality in the European Union...

-based co-operative Consum lasted only a few years.
In 2005, each went their own way.

Figures correct as of July 2005.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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