Dia, ex-Carrefour, joins Spanish top-35 shares

Independent of Carrefour(‘s problems)

Dia or “Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación” had been
Carrefour’s since 1999, when the latter bought Promodès (who had founded
Dia 20 years earlier), and remained in French hands until last June –
when Carrefour finally folded for Blue Capital’s pressure to let the
Spanish distributor go.

“Since then, we start every meeting with investors – wherever they come
from – with the clear statement that we are completely independent from
Carrefour”, states a Dia spokesman. This way, the chain aims to
cultivate its own separate identity and to prove it is not connected any
more to the French group and its financial and organisational problems.

Looking to Spanish elite of shares… and to emerging markets

This month Dia will be elevated to be a member of the Ibex 35, the list
of the most important shares in Spain – equivalent to the French CAC40
or the British FTSE100. With its turnover of 10.5 billion euro and its
2766 stores in Spain and 6373 worldwide, Dia will be the only Spanish
supermarket on the prestigious list.

Apart from Spain, Dia is also active in France, Portugal, Turkey,
Brazil, Argentina and China. The group is rather ambitious regarding the
near future: “We want to continue our growth in every country we are
active in – especially in Brazil and Turkey – and to elevate our number
of stores to 8000 by 2013.” The group operates in two formats:
convenience store Dia Market and larger discount stores Dia Maxi.