KAUFLAND GEARING UP TO LAUNCH ITS HYPERMARKETS IN AUSTRALIA

GERMAN supermarket and grocery giant Kaufland has continued its push into the Australian market with a recruitment drive for senior executives in property development and architecture along with business services engineers.

The job ads have appeared on Seek and cover the capital cities on the eastern seaboard as Kaufland ramps up its assault on Australia's $90 billion supermarket industry.

In November last year, Kaufland played its hand with its first round of recruitment in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and the purchase of its second site from Bunnings in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong for $16.4 million.

Its first site was bought for $25 million on the fringe of Adelaide's CBD, although it is believed Dandenong will become its flagship store when it finally opens its doors late this year.

Kaufland is a subsidiary of the Schwarz Group, a company which in the last financial year boasted a USD$94.4 billion revenue, making it one of the largest retail companies in the world.

Kaufland has been scouting the Australian market for locations for its hypermarkets which are typically four to five times larger than its future local competitors, Coles and Woolies.

Its stores have been compared to Costco at around 20,000 square metres where it sells everything from groceries to electrical goods and hardware.

It is now a global supermarket chain with more than 1,230 stores in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia and it employs more than 150,000 staff. Australia will be its first English-speaking market. Read more

Ben Hall - Business News Australia - 8 Jan 2018