The Intermarché supermarket chain, belonging to the Os Mosqueteiros group, announced this Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to buy, for five million euros, nine of the Alisuper stores, until now owned by the Nogueira Group, in the Algarve.
Intermarché said, in a statement, that the agreement provides for the purchase of Alisuper stores in Albufeira, Alvor, Quarteira, Aljezur, Sagres and Loulé.
However, the group clarifies, the business is still subject to authorization by the Competition Authority.
Carlos Almeida, administrator of the Os Mosqueteiros group, said in a statement that, with this operation in the southern region, Intermarché expects to “triple the turnover of the nine stores and not only maintain the 51 jobs currently allocated to these surfaces, how to create another 90 jobs in the medium term”.
The Jerónimo Martins group, owner of Pingo Doce, also admitted to being in negotiations with the Nogueira Group for the acquisition of stores, disclosed today the Diário Económico.
The purchase of 26 stores from the Alicoop group (which held the companies Alisuper, Macral and Geneco, all insolvent) was made in 2012 by Grupo Nogueira and represented a direct investment of 16 million euros, corresponding to 20% of the debt of the Alicoop group, which amounted to 80 million.
The company's relaunch plan, agreed with the creditors, provided that this amount would be paid within 13 years, with interest at a zero rate. José Nogueira also assumed the payment of a debt of 1,4 million, contracted by workers, individually, to BPN, suggested by the former administration as a way to save jobs. In total, the deal involved 26 million euros.
The reopening of two first Alisuper stores under new management, in Vilamoura and Quinta do Lago, on March 30, 2012, was attended by the then Minister of Economy Álvaro Santos Pereira. Little by little, the northern group Nogueira, who created a rebranding Alisuper brand, has been reopening other stores in the Algarve.
However, in March of this year, the Trade, Offices and Services Workers Union of Portugal denounced the difficulties in paying the 340 workers and suppliers that supermarket chain, a fact that the entrepreneur José Nogueira himself admitted.
The purchase of nine of the Alisuper stores in the Algarve by the food brand of the Os Mosqueteiros group is part of its “2015-2020 Expansion Plan”, which aims to “enter the next decade with a total of 295 stores, increasing the share of the brand's market to 13,5%”.
“This acquisition is another step in Intermarché's expansion strategy, which plans to invest 200 million euros in Portugal and open another 63 new stores by 2020”, says the administrator Carlos Almeida, in a statement.
The Musketeers group claims to have surpassed in 2014, for the first time, the barrier of 40 billion euros in turnover in the 3.566 points of sale it has in France, Portugal, Poland, Belgium and Serbia.
The “2015-2020 Expansion Plan”, transversal to the three brands of the group - Intermarché, Bricomarché and Roady - foresees a total investment of 280 million euros in the increase of the number of stores from the current 299 to 405, which should translate into the creation of more than 3.000 jobs.
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