BILLA (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪla]) is a European supermarket chain originating in Austria, a market where the brand maintains its largest presence with more than 1000 stores. The company, which was founded by Karl Wlaschek in 1953, is currently owned by Germany's REWE Group.
The supermarkets' name is derived from a contraction of BILliger LAden, German for 'inexpensive shop'
Billa in Europe
Billa operates stores in these 8 European countries:
The stores in Hungary were sold to Spar.
Billa in Bulgaria
The company opened its first supermarket in Bulgaria in 2000 and has since then expanded to cover 35 Bulgarian cities, operating a total of 104 supermarkets as of September 2016.
In June 2006, the roof of one of the stores in Sofia collapsed during a storm. There were no injuries reported. There was an investigation to determine the reason for the poor quality of the construction work and whether the same problems are present at other Billa stores in the country, with 11 people eventually going to court.
Billa in Romania
Billa was owned by Rewe Group, which also operates XXL, Penny Market and Selgros outlets in Romania. The company used the tagline Billa zilnic - Cel mai bun pentru mine ("Billa daily - The best for me") and opened its first store in Bucharest in 1999. Since then, Billa has turned into one of the most well represented supermarket chains, with 87 stores (as of September 2016) in Romania. In 2015, all Billa stores were sold to Carrefour Group, and by the end of 2017 will be rebranded into Carrefour Market.
See also
- List of supermarkets
- XXL
- Selgros
References
External links
- Billa Austria
- Billa Bulgaria
- Billa Croatia
- Billa Czech Republic
- Billa Romania
- Billa Russia
- Billa Slovakia
- Billa Ukraine
