METRO Cash & Carry is a leading international company in self-service wholesale and operates more than 600 outlets in 29 countries. With over 100,000 employees worldwide, the company achieved sales of € 31.7 billion in 2007. By generating almost 50 percent of the total sales, METRO Cash & Carry is the top-selling sales brand of the METRO Group. Assortment and service of METRO Cash & Carry’s unique business-to-business model are targeted only towards professional customers such as hotels and restaurants as well as small and mid-sized retailers or institutions. The company offers these special groups a high level of assortment competency both in food and nonfood as well as attractive wholesale prices. An efficient and internationally conferrable concept ensures success in entering new markets. 

METRO Cash & Carry – A story of expansion

The self-service wholesale trade came to Europe in the year 1964 when METRO SB-Großmärkte GmbH & Co. KG was founded in Mülheim/Ruhr. The initiator and driving force behind this concept was Prof. Dr. Otto Beisheim. In 1967 the Franz Haniel & Cie. company became a partner in the new venture. Prof. Dr. Otto Beisheim, the Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH company and the Schmidt-Ruthenbeck family then each held one third of the shares in the German METRO activities and thus constituted the “original group of partners”.

As from the year 1968 the concept was extended beyond the German borders, with the Dutch company Steenkolen Handelsvereeniging N.V. (SHV) as a new partner. The two sides jointly established Makro Zelfbedienigsgroothandel C.V. with the original group of partners holding 40 percent of the shares in this activity. Within the framework of a first major expansion drive METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry entered the market in nine Western European countries by 1972. In the nineties, METRO Cash & Carry expanded its activities to Portugal, Turkey, Morocco and to Eastern Europe.

In July 1996 METRO Cash & Carry merged with Kaufhof Holding AG and Asko Deutsche Kaufhaus AG and the METRO Group was founded. That year also saw the group’s going public. The Metro stock is the only retail stock listed in the German blue-chip index “DAX 30“.

The first step into Asia was taken when METRO Cash & Carry moved into China in 1996. Today the company is present in 5 Asian countries: China, India, Japan, Pakistan and Vietnam. The METRO Cash & Carry business is going to be further internationalized and expanded with the focus on Eastern Europe and Asia. Already by today, more than 80 percent of the staff is working outside of Germany. In many countries the company is on of the major employers.