Metro's Saturn chain exits Belgium

Media Markt no longer
pursues two brand strategy

The board of Media Markt-Saturn Belgium has announced today that they no longer wish to pursue the two brand
strategy with both Media Markt and Saturn. The group prefers to focus on the further
growth of the Media Markt brand.

The move does not really come as a big surprise: pushing the French Saturns away was considered to be a great success
internally and Saturn’s weak results had already put the two brand strategy under pressure for a while. The Belgian stores in Kortrijk, Bruges, Wilrijk and Liège will now be turned into Media
Markt stores, similar to what happened in Switzerland earlier this year.

Meir loses major attraction

Saturn’s flagship store at the Meir in Antwerp will fare rather differently, as Media Markt already has a large
store in the Century Center on the De Keyserlei, just down the street from the
Meir. The board of Media Markt-Saturn Belgium has therefore declared today
that it is their intention to close down
the store in the Stadsfeestzaal.

It hopes to accommodate the 54
employees in other stores, avoiding forced layoffs as much as possible. Saturn’s complicated
organizational structure may however hamper the employees’ easy transition to other
stores.

“Ten additional stores”

To compensate for the Antwerp store closing,  Media Markt “intends to open an additional 10 stores in the
next three years, starting with Media Markt Mechlin in November. After that, a
new store will be opened in Turnhout in the fall of 2014. That signifies a total investment of 30 million
euro and some 500 to 600 new job openings”, states CEO Sven Degezelle.

Media Markt-Saturn Belgium, a Metro subsidiary, had a turnover of 646
million euro in 2012 and currently employs over 1,500 people. On a worldwide
scale, Media-Saturn has 942 stores in 15
countries, bringing in a net turnover of nearly 21 billion euro with 55,000
employees.