Caprabo's offensive to regain ground in the Catalan large distribution market. The company has declared a new stage inaugurated, which once again bets on growth and contemplates investments of 100 million euros in the next five years. The new strategic plan involves opening 80 new points of sale in Catalonia, boosting the Capraboacasa online store, and completing the transformation of the entire current network of stores by 2023, which will adopt a new model focused on maximizing the sale of fresh products and the concept of a proximity supermarket.
The launch of Caprabo's new strategic plan has been possible thanks to two factors. On the one hand, the Eroski group's supermarket chain has reorganized its shareholding with the entry of a new investment partner that provides it with the necessary financial strength to undertake this new phase of expansion. In parallel, Caprabo has opened a new logistics platform in the ZAL Port of El Prat de Llobregat that allows it to gain competitiveness and efficiency and deploy the new plan.
"Caprabo is in a new stage of transformation and growth thanks to the entry of a partner in the shareholding that allows us to reinforce investments and the Caprabo brand," said the chain's president, Javier Amezaga, this Thursday, who considers that the company EP BidCo "is the best partner for our project." "It has been a process that has concluded with satisfaction and represents a significant boost for Caprabo's strategic plans, one of the main Catalan brands," noted the Basque executive, who is also corporate director of the Eroski group.
After long months of negotiations and contacts with possible candidates, last March Eroski announced that it had reached an agreement with the Czech businessman Daniel Křetínský, owner of EP Corporate Group, to sell him 50% of the shares of Supratuc2020, a company that owns Caprabo and the supermarkets that Eroski has in the Balearic Islands. The operation, ratified in August and executed through EP BidCo, also involves the Slovak investor Patrik Tkáč, who usually invests alongside Křetínský, also known as Mister K. Considered the third richest man in the Czech Republic, with an estimated fortune, according to Forbes ranking, of 4 billion dollars, Caprabo's new partner is the president of the Sparta Prague football team and owner of the main energy company in the Czech Republic, in addition to being the main shareholder of the German distribution group Metro and having invested in the newspaper Le Monde and the British chain Sainsbury's.
According to Caprabo's general director, Edorta Juaristi, the 2021-2025 plan "is one of the largest undertaken by Caprabo in recent years and will involve improving service to stores, efficiency and the quality of the customer shopping experience." Juaristi highlights that the chain has already invested 26 million in the reorganization of its logistics structure. On the one hand, the new 24,600 square meter warehouse in the ZAL has been opened, where the distribution of fresh products and the preparation and dispatch service for orders arriving through Capraboacasa have been centralized. In parallel, investment has been made in the modernization of the Abrera logistics platform (26,000 square meters), focused on packaged or non-perishable products.
According to Juaristi, the transformation plan for Caprabo's network of almost 300 supermarkets will be completed in 2023, with a global investment of more than 60 million euros. In 2021 alone, the chain has remodeled 70 points of sale. In parallel, a plan for new openings will be activated. This year, Caprabo has inaugurated 14 establishments, with an investment of six million. By 2025, 80 more supermarkets are expected to open, all in Catalonia.
The new ZAL center, which also houses the chain's corporate offices, has allowed extending the online store's delivery hours ---from seven in the morning to ten at night--- and reducing the preparation and delivery margin for orders to one hour. The challenge now is to increase the presence of fresh products in online purchases.
The 2021-2025 plan is one of the largest undertaken by Caprabo in recent years and will involve improving service to stores, efficiency, and the quality of the customer shopping experience.Amezaga, who was director of Caprabo between 2007 and 2010, met this Thursday with the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés, who visited the new ZAL logistics center and was able to learn in detail about the 100 million investment project that will be executed in the coming years. In addition to Juaristi, the president of the Port of Barcelona, Damià Calvet, also participated in the meeting.
Caprabo, which just turned 62, closed its fiscal year last January with a turnover of 842 million euros, a figure that represents a growth of 6.6% compared to the 790 million earned in 2019, when it experienced a 13% drop. The company has more than 6,000 employees.