MediaMarkt replaces Worten in Sant Antoni, with a 1,000 square meter store

Barcelona's Ronda Sant Antoni prepares to welcome MediaMarkt. The German multinational has acquired the store that Worten had since 2011 at the confluence with Floridablanca street and which it will now transform into an establishment specialized in the sale of telephony products and online games. It is a fully glazed premises with a surface area of more than one thousand square meters distributed over two floors.

It is not the first time that this store changes its brand; in 2011, Worten replaced PC City, a chain of the British group Dixons that decided to leave the Spanish market. For Worten, owned by the Portuguese industrial conglomerate Sonae, the opening in Sant Antoni marked a milestone, as it was its first center in Barcelona and a symbol of its expansion plans throughout Spain. Ten years later, however, Worten has withdrawn from the Spanish market after being unable to cope with the leadership of MediaMarkt, which has bought the 17 stores that the Portuguese chain had in Spain, six of them located in Catalonia. Curiously, there have been no changes on the other side of the street: despite all the difficulties, the historic store that the Miró appliance chain has on Ronda Sant Antoni remains open and fully operational.

The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) authorized on March 1 the purchase of Worten stores by MediaMarkt, which has taken over its entire staff, consisting of 258 people. With this operation, the German group increases its sales area in Spain by 8% and reaches a network of 106 stores and nearly 7,000 employees.

Worten signs are now history in the Ronda Sant Antoni store, where employees are busy transforming the premises into a MediaMarkt establishment expected to open in April. According to the multinational, an "urban and proximity" store will be launched, with an assortment focused on "telephony, gaming, smarthome and brand spaces," in addition to enhancing customer service such as repairs and home technicians. The opening of urban stores is one of MediaMarkt's growth plan priorities, a strategy that led it, for example, to also set up shop on Fontanella street in Barcelona, next to Portal de l'Àngel.

MediaMarkt has also acquired the stores that Worten had in the Montigalà industrial estate in Badalona, in Lloret de Mar, Platja d'Aro, Calafell and Sant Boi de Llobregat. Based in El Prat de Llobregat, the Spanish subsidiary of the group has set itself the goal of invoicing 3,000 million euros in 2025, a figure that would represent a growth of 60% compared to the 1,871 million euros earned in 2020 (8.7% less). To achieve this, it plans to increase the number of stores to 150 and achieve online invoicing of 1,000 million in Spain.

In addition to betting on urban stores, the chain wants to develop a new commercial format in Barcelona and Madrid called Lighthouse, which requires large premises, as they will be establishments of up to 10,000 square meters. "We are looking for locations in Barcelona for the Lighthouse store format," says the company. These macro-stores, they explain, "will be dedicated to innovation, with areas for training and the direct presence of leading international technology brands. They will be like a physical marketplace in consumer electronics."