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The news of the inglorious fate of another supermarket chain – Aldi, which announced its withdrawal from the Greek market, came days after the failure notification of the commercial chain Fnac. Recession and low consumption in the past six months led to the decision of the board of the company to cease its activities in the Balkan country only 20 months after opening its first site. The news comes only months after raising the company’s equity by € 25 million and plans to develop 280 retail stores across the country.

At least 700 people will remain unemployed and hundreds of suppliers will lose an important customer in the face of the Aldi chain of stores as result of the withdrawal of another international company from the Greek market. The company is one of the largest holdings in the retail field since 2008. It has 38 facilities only in Greece, which were supplied by 130 local manufacturers and traders. The total investment of the project amounted to more than € 1 billion. Economic experts talk about the “domino effect”, which threatens small and large enterprises due to lack of liquidity and lower purchasing power of the Greeks in recent times. One solution that could preserve jobs losses after the closure of Aldi comes from the corporate group Delhaize. It is a Belgian corporation of stores in USA, Belgium, Romania, Indonesia, Luxembourg and Greece. It owns the AB-Vasilopoulos supermarket chain. The statement of the Public Relations Department at Delhaize says they are always ready to expand on markets where they are already presented. The AB-Vasilopoulos chain announced turnover of € 1.44 billion and € 42.2 million profit before taxes in 2009.

Another supermarket chain – Atlantic, in its struggle to survive in hard times, announced late payments, citing Article 99 of Law № 3588/2007 Code of bankruptcy. According to this article, the chain is able to continue its activities and protected from seizure of assets due to failure to repay its current obligations to suppliers. Currently, the Atlantic supermarkets due over € 20 million to 38 of its creditors, including Coca-Cola Hellenic, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé Hellas, Mevgal, Creta Farm, Barilla Hellas and many others. The case will be heard at first instance on  October 27, this year. It is hoped that the court will rule in favor of the chain that will gain legal extension to repay its obligations. The fate of 3700 employees depends on the court decision too. They will remain unemployed if there is no solution for the obligations of Atlantic.

Greece has had a bitter experience with the retention of successful international corporations on its domestic market in recent decades. One example is the subsidiary of the Japanese corporation Nissan, which after a series of strikes, disorder and other impediments, closed its branch in Thessaly. So, central Greece lost more than 420 jobs in the mid 80’s and opportunities for development and production of automobiles competing Italy in the Mediterranean region. Other international companies that have given up their production plans in Greece 20 years ago are Ρrocter & Gamble and Pirelli, and the commercial representations of the companies for fuel processing and trade ΒΡ and Shell.