Market
Traditional retailers, grocery stores, local markets
and street peddlers take a 70% share of the
Turkish retail market while organised retailing
companies share the remainder. The most
important problem of this market is the size of
the unregistered economy.
The Turkish retail sector is still in its infancy
and is not yet walking. In 2005, there were
nearly 4,000 hypermarkets in France compared
to 160 in Turkey. There are 13 international
retail companies in Poland, which is one of two
‘star’ countries in the retail market. The other
‘star’, Turkey, has 5-6 retailers.
As the first international retail company to
invest in Turkey, the METRO Group is leading
the market with ideas and technology.
According to METRO Group’s international
efficiency strategy, Turkey is one of the most
important target market
regions because, besides its
high potential in its own right,
it is also a bridge to Asia and
has close business relations
with the Black Sea. For these
reasons, Turkey and Poland
are the two countries that
METRO Group has selected
for growth.
Achievements
The first METRO Cash &
Carry store in Turkey
introduced barcode
technology to the Turkish
retail market and this event
and the company’s other
stores have brought many
innovations in presentation,
display and marketing to
Turkey.
In 2005, the Turkish
Association for Consumer
Protection (TTKD) awarded
METRO Cash & Carry a Gold
Medal as the Favourite and
Most Preferred Retail
Company of 2004. Also in 2005, METRO
Group’s Real Hypermarket Chain received the
Ministry of Industry and Commerce’s Customer
Satisfaction Oriented Company award and the
Praktiker Home Improvement Centre received
the Consumer Friends Golden Quality Awards
(TDAK) given by Tüketici Raporu (Consumer
Report) magazine’s Selection Board of
Conscious Consumers Representatives.
METRO Group is active in 30 countries with
2,446 stores, making it one of the most widely
spread retail companies in the world. METRO
Group benefits from various management skills
because of the lessons it has learned in the
countries it has invested in.
History
Established in 1964 in Germany, METRO Group
is one of the world’s three biggest retail
companies. METRO Group started operations in
Turkey in 1977 when it opened a purchasing
office to export Turkish products to stores in
Europe. METRO Group’s purchasing company in
Turkey, METRO GroupBuying, still exports local
products to Europe and other parts of the
world.
METRO Group opened its first store in
Turkey in Güneflli, ‹stanbul, in 1990, by launching
METRO Cash & Carry as a self-service
wholesale retailer. As of 2005, there were nine
METRO Cash & Carry stores serving the
wholesale market.
Real Hypermarket Chain is the retailing
company of METRO Group. It established its
head office in 1997 in ‹stanbul and now there
are seven Real stores in Turkey. With an
average of 6,500 m2 of selling space, Real
Hypermarkets are active in Germany, Poland
and Turkey. Praktiker Home Improvement
Centres, which opened in 1997, are the leaders
of ‘do-it-yourself’ in Turkey. In its seventh year in
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Turkey, Praktiker Turkey refurbished eight of its
stores to global standards to present a highquality shopping environment and meet
customers’ needs.
Product
METRO Cash & Carry is a wholesaler serving
the occupational and personal needs of
professionals who buy in bulk. As a wholesaler,
its stores are different from retailing
hypermarkets. This structure works with a
system that allows customers of METRO stores
to make bulk purchases of whatever they like
from the shelves. The company keeps prices as
low as possible by minimising costs. For
example, there are no retail store-type
decorations and displays. Half of METRO Cash
& Carry customers are artisans, 25% are Horeca
(hotel, restaurant, catering) and the remaining
25% are from various business offices. These
customers purchase either to sell as retailers or
to use in their businesses. Because the shopping
is for wholesalers and businesses, all customers
need a ‘METROkart’ to enter the stores.
Real Hypermarkets display 30,000 food and
non-food products under one roof and
distribute high quality products at a good price.
The selection process for suppliers is rigorous.
The logistics costs are kept to a minimum and
the advantage of this cost saving is reflected in
the prices. Food engineers check all of the food
products in Real stores to ensure they meet
international quality standards and fresh food is
purchased daily.
Besides serving the construction market,
Praktiker is also a home improvement centre.
As such, the company has renewed its product
portfolio to reach not only male but also female
customers. It has also enhanced its product
spectrum to meet the demand for well-known
brands. So the company displays Bosch, Black &
Decker and AEG brands in its appliances and
machinery sections, while Kütahya and Ege
Seramik products are in the ceramic section and
Dominox, Blanco, Krom Evye, Eryamanlar brands
have a place in the kitchen supplies section.
Customers can also find Serel, Ege Seramik and
Petek in the bathroom and bathroom
accessories section and Paflabahçe, Borcam,
Güral Porselen in home equipment section. The
latest products of Tefal, Moulinex, Simtel and
Philips are in the electrical home appliances
section and Samur are represented in the
carpets section, while Sony, Philips and Toshiba
have products in the electronics section.
Praktiker uses the ‘Shop in Shop’ concept so
well-known brands can arrange their own
displays within a defined area and customers can
find whichever brand they are looking for.
Recent Developments
METRO Group is a retail sector mover and
shaker because of its reforming character. The
company is extending the future borders of
retailing with projects it is currently conducting
in a few places in Germany. Its Future Store
project uses product labels that emit radio
signals. Over 100 informatics companies are
involved in this project, which the company is
extending section by section through the chosen
stores. The biggest obstacle to this project’s
widespread application is the price of the special
labels, which currently runs to about 20-30 cents
each. If this can be reduced to 2-3 cents,
shopping culture will change forever.
METRO Group, which continued its Turkish
investments during the country’s most troubled
economic periods, invested a total amount of
1880 million from the day it started its
operations in Turkey until 2005. The company
plans to open new stores in Turkey, especially in
the larger cities, with investments of 1300 million
and upwards over the next two years. It can
invest more if it finds suitable land.
Promotion
Gathering all food products, including fresh
vegetables and fruit, and other products, like
stationery, glassware and kitchen appliances,
under a single roof at METRO Cash & Carry
makes life easier for companies’ purchasing
departments. These companies also receive full
and proper invoicing for their purchases at
METRO Cash & Carry stores, and this
encourages them to shop there.
Real Hypermarkets Chains
stock themselves from
national and international
companies, but they also
work with local companies
that can or are capable of
meeting the required
standards. Thus, the Real
chain can support local
companies while it widens
its range of products.
Praktiker stores go
beyond just selling to
providing a range of services
that include free parking and
conveniently located
assigned parking areas for
disabled customers,
transportation and assembly
of purchases, and gifts
services. Praktiker also
guarantees to refund or
replace, in strict compliance
with the law, any products
that the customer does not
like, that are problematic, or
broken. Praktiker also offers
wood measuring and
cutting, and curtain tailoring
and picture framing services.
The stores enhance customer satisfaction by
providing transportation, assembly and fitting
services according to customer demands. It
offers these from one centre under a new
managerial organisation called Pratikman. The
company also offers repair and renovation
services. In this way, Praktiker answers the needs
of its customers.
METRO Group exercises its social
responsibilities through many projects. METRO
Cash & Carry sponsors the Ericek Village Rural
Development Project of TEMA (Turkish
Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for
Reforestation and the Protection of Natural
Habitats). The aims of this project are to end
damaging farming methods while supporting
sustainable ones, especially in stockbreeding, to
improve the villagers’ socioeconomic situation
and to prevent erosion and floods.
METRO Group Real Hypermarket Chain
organises an annual Street Football Tournament
involving on average 3,000 teams a year. The
tournament has brought new talent to Turkish
football. The elimination matches take place in
Ankara, Gaziantep, Bursa, ‹zmit, Kartal (‹stanbul)
and Adana and the finals take place in ‹stanbul.
METRO Group supports art events, especially
the development of Turkish cinema. To
encourage short movie production, the company
organises the annual METRO Group Short Film
Competition. The winners of this competition
go to Germany to receive training. The group
also works closely with TURSAK (Turkish
Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture)
on various projects and, being the main sponsor
of the International Cinema and History
Meeting, the METRO Group supported the
establishment of the ‹stanbul Modern art
museum.
METRO Cash & Carry is supporting education
because it is aware of the need for technically
well-educated personnel in the large stores
sector. In conjunction with the Ministry of
Education, the company started the Selling
Personnel Training Programme in 1999.
The 18 to 22-year-olds attending to this
programme receive practical training five days a
week in METRO Cash & Carry stores and
attend classes in occupational high schools on a
sixth day each week.
The company also gives financial support to
Marmara University’s German Speaking
Department of Business Administration and
Information Systems.
The group’s Praktiker stores prepared a
booklet titled ‘How to Protect Ourselves from
Earthquakes’ with the contribution of Professor
Dr. Ahmet Mete Ifl›kara, Turkey’s leading
authority of earthquakes. These booklets, which
are distributed to the customers in Praktiker
stores, show how to take small precautions at
home and prevent non-structural damage.
‘The Edible Herbs’ book is a Kitchen Friends
Association, METRO Group and METRO Cash
& Carry joint project. This book was prepared
with the express purpose of saving and
preserving important aspects of traditional
Anatolian cuisine.
Brand Values
The most significant difference between METRO
Group and its competitors is the importance
METRO Group gives to technology.
Its major investments, the marketing activities
for Turkey’s industry and the work the company
has put into improving human resources are
activities that sustain the social prosperity of
Turkey. METRO group’s international
connections, network, and modern retailing and
wholesaling systems also sustain the social
prosperity of Turkey.
www.metro-group.com.tr
THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
METRO Group
METRO Group yearly exports from Turkey
approximately 1600 million worth of goods
per year.
METRO Group Buying presents Turkish
products to Europe and the world.
METRO Cash & Carry sells Turkish olive oil in
its Japanese outlets, Turkish televisions in its
Polish outlets and Turkish textiles in its German
outlets.
METRO Group provides employment to
approximately 5,000 full time workers.
Real and Praktiker renovated the Hesna Gündefl
Primary School in Kartal, ‹stanbul, which was in a
ruinous state.
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