Greek supermarket chain Marinopoulos, founded in 1995 as a joint venture between Marinopoulus Group and Carrefour, has filed for bankruptcy. The French supermarket chain had already withdrawn from the joint venture in 2012.
Domino effect
A huge debt caused the bankruptcy, with Marinopoulos owning more than 3,000 suppliers several hundred million euro. It is feared this bankruptcy will cause a domino effect and cause a shockwave amongst its suppliers. Nearly 13,000 people worked for Marinopoulos.
It filed for bankruptcy in order to get a Chapter 11, after debtors seized the company’s revenue and came to get their products back. The company now has 2 months to find and talk to a partner willing to save the chain. There had been talks with another Greek chain, Sklavenitis, but to no avail. The 1.3 billion euro debt will not facilitate any possible discussion, but nevertheless, all possible options will be discussed over the next few weeks.
Marinopoulos launched in 1893, when its very first store opened. Currently, the chain has more than 700 supermarkets in Greece and the founding family still owns most of the company’s shares.
