Italy’s Cortelazzi Food Service is expanding into Slovakia, with the group set to open its first store in the country this month.
The supermarket, which is set to be located in Bratislava’s Bory district, will be 1,800 square metres in size and will offer about 4,500 Italian SKUs, as well as featuring a café and restaurant.
News of the store's opening was revealed by local daily Hospodárske Noviny, as well as Relife.
Cortelazzi will be the first large store in Slovakia to specialise in selling food from a foreign country, in this case Italy, with grocery stores in Bratislava to date only selling a selection of imported food products.
Czech Presence
Cortelazzi is a family-owned company that has been operating across the border, in Czechia, since 1997.
It supplies the local market and surrounding countries wholesale with Italian products – including chilled & fresh, grocery, frozen and beverage products – and also operates a supermarket in Prague that features exclusively Italian products.
Cortelazzi Food Service also plans to open stores in Budapest and Vienna in 2024.
According to the group's website, the company's mission is to 'convey the passion for Italian food all over Europe. The improvement of the love for Italian food is our most valuable spearhead'.
Jerónimo Martins Plans
Jerónimo Martins, the Portuguese supermarket group, announced last week its plans to inaugurate its initial stores in Slovakia by the end of the upcoming year. This expansion will be carried out under its Polish retail chain, Biedronka.
The head of Biedronka, Luis Araujo, highlighted that many Slovak shoppers have been crossing the border to shop at Biedronka, leading the company to closely consider Slovakia as a prime location for its expansion efforts.
