Wibra to open first French store this spring

Dutch non-food discounter Wibra aims to open its first store in France in the first half of next year. The ambitious retailer wants to open its 300th store in 2025.

“Exciting step”

Before the summer of 2024, Wibra wants to open its first store in France – most likely in the north, near Lille or Roubaix. “An exciting step“, CEO Bas Duijsens said earlier this week in Q&A Retail’s podcast Thoughtful Thursday.

Wibra also plans to open at least thirty new shops in the Netherlands and Belgium in the coming months and years. The retailer currently has 270 stores but wants to raiser that number to 300 by 2025. The discounter sees an interesting opportunity in the disappearance of Big Bazar: that chain’s bankruptcy made almost a hundred properties available on the market. Wibra has already taken over fourteen of these and is considering renting a dozen more properties. As a result, the chain will be able to open one to two shops per week in the coming months.