Metro AG


Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership only cash and carry stores primarily under Metro brand. As of 2020 it operates around 670 stores in 24 countries in Europe and Asia.
The company was established in 1964 by Ernst Schmidt and Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck. In 2010, it was the fourth-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues, after Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco. Its current incarnation was launched in 2017 as a spun-off of old Metro AG, which continued to be a consumer electronics retailer and renamed itself Ceconomy.

History

The history of the Metro began on November 8, 1963 in Essen with the opening of the first wholesale center under the name Metro by the brothers Ernst Schmidt and Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck. Planning and opening of the first hypermarket under the name Metro in Essen was the responsibility of Walter Vieth, who was managing director there from 1963 to 1970.
In 1964, a year after the opening of the first Metro store, the Stöcker & Reinshagen company planned a cash and carry store in Mülheim an der Ruhr. During the construction phase, the businessmens Schmidt-Ruthenbeck, Schmidt and Schell met and decided to merge their cash and carry activities. So they founded Metro-SB-Großmarkt GmbH & Co. KG with headquarters in Mülheim, later in Düsseldorf. In 1966, the third Metro was opened in West Berlin. In 1967, through a partnership with the Dutch company SHV Holdings, a wholesale center opened in Utrecht, the Netherlands under the name makro.
In 1980, Metro took over 24.9 percent of Kaufhof.
In March 1996, Metro AG was formed by the merger of Metro Cash & Carry with Kaufhof Holding AG, Deutsche SB-Kauf AG, and Asko Deutsche Kaufhaus AG. The group also included the Huma shopping centers, the sports retail stores Primus Sportwelt, MHB Handel AG and the office supplies and stationery manufacturer Pelikan, as well as Media-Saturn, the consumer electronics business of Media Markt and Saturn. The share of Metro AG was founded retrospectively on January 1 and listed on July 22, 1996 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and was part of the DAX until 2012.
In 1998, the computer retailers Vobis and Maxdata, the Adler fashion stores and Reno's shoe retailers, the discounter TiP, Möbel Roller and unprofitable Kaufhof branches were brought into the subsidiary Divaco, which was founded together with Deutsche Bank and the Gerling Group, in order to attract new buyers. In December 2003, Metro separated from its stake in Divaco KG and sold its shares to the sole shareholder and CEO, Siegfried Kaske, for 1 euro. In 2004, Metro bought Adler fashion stores back from Divaco.
Also in 1998, the 94 Allkauf -S department stores were bought, as was Allkauf Touristik Vertriebs GmbH with 160 travel agencies, which were sold again by Metro.
In 2005, Metro split off the Praktiker home improvement division, which went public as an independent company.
In July 2006 Metro bought the 85 German stores of Wal-Mart, which gave up its loss-making Germany business. The Wal-Mart stores were largely integrated into the Real sales brand.
In July 2008, the Extra supermarket chain with around 250 locations and sales of around 1.6 billion euro, was sold to the Rewe Group. Metro sold the Adler fashion stores to the associated company BluO in February 2009.
In November 2012, Metro sold its 91 Real hypermarkets in Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine to Auchan for 1.1 billion euro. In 2014 Metro sold the 12 hypermarkets in Turkey. In 2017 Metro sold the last remaining four hypermarkets in Romania.
On June 15, 2015, Metro AG agreed to sell Galeria Kaufhof to Canadian retail conglomerate Hudson's Bay Company for $3.2 billion.
On March 30, 2016, Metro Group announced that it will be splitting into two independent companies: A spin-off of the wholesale and food sector of Metro AG will be responsible for the group divisions into two independent and publicly listed companies. Both will have their own management, supervisory board and independent company profiles. Metro AG was renamed Ceconomy, comprising Media Markt and Saturn electronics stores, while a new company with the name Metro AG was formed, comprising Metro Cash & Carry and Real.
In September 2018, Metro announced that it wanted to sell the Real hypermarket subsidiary in Germany to focus entirely on wholesale business. In February 2020, Real was sold to the German-Russian consortium of X-Bricks and SCP Group.

Wholesale Operations

The company operates wholesale stores, primarily under the Metro brand, in Europe, India, Japan, Kazahstan, Myanmar and Pakistan. In Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Czech Republic, it operates stores under the Makro brand, which were acquired entirely from SHV Holdings in 1998.
Belgium is the only country where are operated non-business membership stores, with 6 branches under the Makro brand. There are also 10 Metro stores for business members.

Former Wholesale Operations

In 2010, Metro sold the Makro subsidiary in Morocco.
Metro sold in 2012 its 30 Makro stores in the United Kingdom to Booker Group.
Metro opened the first store in 1971 in the Copenhagen suburb of Glostrup. Denmark was one of the first countries to begin operating delivery services out of the stores and had its own truck fleet that covered all of Denmark. Metro sold the 5 stores in Denmark in December 2014.
In 2014, Metro sold the 9 Makro stores in Greece to Sklavenitis.
In Egypt a store was opened in June 2010 followed by a second in October 2010. Both stores were closed some time within 2013-2015, as the company started withdrawing from loss-making markets.
Metro sold the network of 19 stores in Vietnam to TCC Holding in 2016 for $550 million.
The first store in China was opened in 1996 in Shanghai in a joint-venture with the Jinjiang Group. On 23 April 2020, Metro completed the sale of the majority stake in Metro China, who operates 97 wholesale centers, to Wumei Technology Group for more than €1.5 billion. Metro’s 20% stake in the joint venture allows it to explore various strategic partnership opportunities with Wumei and its technology partner Dmall.

Metro name

Metro had the naming rights for brand name Metro protected at an early stage, including an agreement with the Hollywood giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which was possible at the time without remuneration.
Metro tried to secure its usage rights for the term "Metro" in various proceedings. The Lower Saxony railway company MetroRail had to change its name to Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH, but can still call its trains Metro. Also the Metro Rapid Successors Metro Express was renamed after being threatened with legal action. In Nabburg, the Metro discotheque was sued and had to change its name. Lawsuits against public transport companies Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, Hamburger Hochbahn, Hamburger Verkehrsverbund and Munich Transport Company because of the name Metro-Bus for some main bus routes were rejected in the first instance. The second instance confirmed the judgments, but significantly restricted the use of the public transport companies of the name Metro. In the Ruhr area, the bike rental system Metrorad ruhr had to be renamed Metropolradruhr.
In 2012, in the face of an impending brand conflict, Microsoft renamed its Metro user interface of the Microsoft Windows 8 computer operating system.