“For us, 50 years of METRO Cash & Carry is both a reason to celebrate and an incentive for the future”says Olaf Koch, Chairman of the Management Boardof METRO AG and CEO of METRO Cash & Carry. “We have set ourselves the challenge of expanding on the success we have achieved in many parts of the business, not just maintaining it. And we also intend to make the most of all the positives that can already be found throughout METRO Cash & Carry.” Entrepreneurial spirit, a passion for the business and a strong service focus are all traits which METRO Cash & Carry shares with its customers. It is these values that lay the solid foundation for joint success stories.
METRO, favourite partner of antrepreneurs
To coincide with its anniversary in 2014, METRO Cash & Carry is also reformulating its mission statement for the years to come. Long-term, trusting partnerships with its customers, employees, partners and suppliers form the basis for its future success. This new approach, YOU & METRO, emphasizes our positioning and represents a part of the METRO image campaign. More information can be found the METRO GROUP website. “We want to be the best partner for independent businesses,” explains Olaf Koch. “That is the target we have set ourselves and the benchmark we will be measured by.”
“Our success is, in fact, our customers’ success. Probably more than in any type of commerce business, cash & carry segment is a segment based on professional relations and trust. This is why the new positioning actually continues METRO Cash & Carry’s initiatives of getting closer to the customers for the last 50 years”, stated Gilles Roudy, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Romania.“We would also like to emphasize our constant attention to independent businesses in Romania, be it start-ups, developing or mature businesses in need of consolidation. We are happy to apply the new, YOU & METRO approach and to further focus all our efforts on becoming the favorite partner of independent businesses and also of entrepreneurs”, added Gilles Roudy.
From one store in Mülheim, Germany, to a global chain
METRO Cash & Carry has played a crucial role in shaping the development of the wholesale industry over the past 50 years. The first METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store opened in Mülheim a. d. Ruhr (Germany) on 27 October 1964. The idea of self-service wholesale quickly met with interest both at home and abroad and the company started expanding within Europe just four years later. This was largely thanks to the hallmarks of the cash & carry concept: a wide range and high product availability, the ability to transfer the store format abroad and the rapid development of a high-performance merchandise management and logistics system. IT was used to ensure that an effective, data-driven approach was taken to managing the business. METRO Cash & Carry set another milestone in 2009, when it rolled out its delivery service in Germany. This service is now available around the world. Today, METRO Cash & Carry has more than 750 stores in 29 different countries and employs around 120,000 people. In the short financial year 2013 which stretched from January to September, the division generated sales of €31 billion.
