Plus (supermarket)
 Prima leben und sparen ("Live great and save"); in the US: "Prices Low U Save" | |
| GmbH | |
| Industry | Food retailing |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany |
Key people | Michael Hürter |
| Revenue | € 10 bn (2006)[1] |
| Website | plus-online.de |
Plus was a German-based international supermarket chain founded in 1972. It operated 2,840 stores in Germany with an approximate 27,000 employees and about 1,200 stores in several other European countries. The retail model was to sell low-cost groceries with no expense incurred for display or marketing of products. Groceries were stored in the shipping cartons they came in, rather than being stacked on shelves. In German advertising, the name "Plus" was used as a backronym for "Prima leben und sparen" (approximately "top-notch living and saving"), featuring animated "little prices" (also sold as plush puppets) as their mascot.
Sale
The Edeka Group and the Tengelmann Group entered a joint venture to acquire the Plus supermarket chain on November 16, 2007, which resulted in 70% of Plus supermarkets being owned by the Edeka Group and 30% owned by the Tengelmann Group.
As of January 2009, the stores in the Plus supermarket chain owned by the Edeka group were remodelled into Netto Marken-Discount supermarket chain branches, while the Tengelmann Group's supermarkets were bought by Lidl, Spar, Carrefour, etc.
In the Netherlands, there is an unrelated supermarket chain called PLUS which is part of the Sperwer Group.
Former operations
| Country | First supermarket | Number of supermarkets |
|---|---|---|
 Germany | 1972 | 2840 |
 Austria | 2003 | 3551 |
 Spain (all Spanish stores were bought by Dia) | 1994 | 238 |
 Portugal (all Portuguese stores were bought by Jerónimo Martins group) | 2003 | 75 |
 Poland (all Polish stores were bought by Jerónimo Martins) | 1995 | 183 |
 Czech Republic (all Czech stores were bought by REWE) | 1992 | 134 |
 Romania (all Romanian stores were bought by Lidl) | 2005 | 120 |
 Bulgaria (all Bulgarian stores were bought by Lidl) | 2009 | 25 (200 planned) |
 Hungary (all Hungarian stores were bought by Spar) | 1992 | 174 |
 United States (all US stores were operated by A&P. Closed by 1982.) | 1980 | 21 |
 Greece (all Greek stores were bought by AB Vasilopoulos) | 2006 | 10 |
References
- ↑ "Keine Tabus". WirtschaftsWoche (10). March 5, 2007. p. 58.