Russian Metrika joins DIY group Bricoalliance

Russian
DIY chain Metrika has joined international purchasing group
Bricoalliance to see the Belgian based organisation spread further
East. Bricoalliance’s slow but steady expansion sees them enter the
top league of European DIY chains, with (currently) 351 stores in 7
countries.

Saint-Petersburg group with experience and ambition

Metrika, a
Russian group with its main focus on the Saint-Petersburg region,
adds serious weight to the Bricoalliance basket: it counts on having
a 400 million euro turnover and 55 stores at the end of this year.
General manager Jeroen Lauwers is overjoyed: “this is a very strong
group and an excellent addition for Bricoalliance, as Metrika is an
independent retailer with a huge growth and impressive know-how”.

Metrika is
special because it has an important assortment of private label
products in addition to the A-brands. “This is an interesting
strategy, and we certainly can learn a lot from Metrika’s
experience”, says Lauwers.

Expanding North and East

Bricoalliance,
founded in Southern Europe in 2005 after Spanish Bricoking,
Portuguese Mestre Maco and Italian Puntolegno joined forces, but its
centre of gravity (and headquarters) shifted North when Belgian Hubo
joined in 2006. The northbound expansion continued and the group had
already conquered the Netherlands and Poland before entering the
Estonian and Lithuanian market when Bauhof joined earlier this year.
The Russian Metrika group now is the next step in that evolution.