Billa (supermarket)


BILLA is an Austrian supermarket chain that operates in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The company was founded by Karl Wlaschek in 1953. He sold his controlling interest to Germany's REWE Group in 1996.

History

In 1953 Karl Wlaschek opened a discount perfume shop in the Vienna district of Margareten called WKW. By 1960 WKW had 45 stores in Austria. In 1961 the chain was renamed Billa, a portmanteau of "billiger Laden", German for 'cheap shop', started selling food and went over to self-service. In 1965 the company had grown to 109 stores. REWE Group acquired Billa in 1996.

Present locations

Billa operates stores in six European countries:
CountryNo. of stores
1,102
233
172
145
121
35

Austria

Austria is the chain's home market. As of March 2019 Billa had 1,069 stores in the country, second only to SPAR's 1,538.

Czech Republic

The first Billa supermarket in the Czech Republic was opened in Stránského Street, Brno, on 26 October 1991. The company has 215 stores in the country and employs over 6,000 staff. Billa stores have an average sales area of 900 m2.

Slovakia

Billa opened its first store in Slovakia in 1993.

Bulgaria

The company opened its first supermarket in Bulgaria in 2000 and has since then expanded to cover 38 Bulgarian cities, operating a total of 131 supermarkets as of June 2020.
In June 2006, the roof of one of the stores in Sofia collapsed during a storm. There were no injuries reported. There was an investigation to determine the reason for the poor quality of the construction work and whether the same problems are present at other Billa stores in the country, with 11 people eventually going to court.

Russia

The first Billa supermarket in Russia opened in 2004. There are now 151 Billa stores, mostly in Moscow and surrounding cities.

Ukraine

On 3 February 2000 the first Billa store opened in the Ukraine, located in Kiev. By July 2020 there were 35 Billa supermarkets, of which 32 are in or around Kiev.

Former locations

Billa operated in other countries in the past.
CountryNo. of storesSold toYear sold
136Carrefour

Conad

others 		2014
62Spar2016
21Spar2002
14E.Leclerc2009
86Carrefour2015