An exclusive LSA report today (4 June) reveals that the first Hyper U store to become an Auchan hypermarket, as a result of the partnership between the two retailers, will be l’Hyper U de Gap, located in the Hautes-Alpes region of France.
The Système U hypermarket will undergo the brand-transformation during the summer, and will reopen on 16 September as an Auchan hypermarket. Furthermore, the 4,000-square-metre store will be expanded by another 2,500 square metres.
The transformational work has in fact already begun, as the chains want it to be complete by the time schools reopen and holidays have finished.
The provisional plan of the retailers is one of brand exchange: many Simply Market d’Auchan stores will become Système U supermarkets, and, as in the Hyper U de Gap case, many Hyper U hypermarkets will become Auchan hypermarkets.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article written by Peter Donnelly.
