GERMANY - Praktiker AG, Germany’s second- biggest home-improvement retailer, said it will open the first do-it-yourself store in Albania, one of Europe’s poorest nations.
The outlet will open next month in the capital Tirana, Praktiker said in an e-mailed statement.
The Kirkel-based retailer has operations in nine countries outside Germany.
Albania, which applied this year to join the European Union, has 3.2 million inhabitants and a gross domestic product per capita of $4,006, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. About 90 percent of Albanians own a property and most houses need renovation, Praktiker said.
Praktiker postponed initial plans to open the store last year because of the global economic crisis. “The start in Albania will allow us, after the foreseeable end of the crisis, to further improve our market leading position in the region,” Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Werner said in the statement. Besides its outlets in Germany and Luxemburg, Praktiker has operations in eight eastern and south-eastern European nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment