August 6 (SeeNews) - Maxima Bulgaria, a unit of Lithuanian discount retailer Maxima Grupe, said on Tuesday that it is seeking clearance from Bulgaria's anti-trust body to sign long-term contracts for the lease of stores of supermarket chain Triumf in the city of Plovdiv.
A strategic step is being made towards strengthening Maxima Bulgaria's presence in the country's second largest city, where the company already operates three stores of its supermarket chain T-Market, Petar Pavlov, CEO of Maxima Bulgaria, said in a statement.
"After the Commission for Protection of Competition issues a decision, we will initiate the process of gradual integration of the [Triumf] stores," Pavlov added.
The Triumf supermarket chain started operating in 2000 in Plovdiv and currently has 11 stores across the city.
Maxima Bulgaria is operating 73 T-Market stores located in 38 Bulgarian cities. The company opened nine new stores in 2018 and closed the year with a turnover of 259.7 million levs ($148.7 million/132.8 million euro) and EBITDA of 1.56 million levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)