Mindaugas Bagdonavičius, CEO of Maxima Grupė that owns retail chains in the Baltic countries and Bulgaria, said in an interview to the paper that he sees the acquisition of Aldik Nova as "an investment in the future." He said that the chain will not be integrated into Maxima Grupė.
Bagdonavičius said that it is too early to speak about any other new acquisitions.
"In order to move further, you need to understand the particular market. We already have some understanding of it, but we need to gain a foothold and do some homework before we can approve a strategy and think out the tactics. We could consider expansion in that voivodship (province), as well as consider acquiring other chains," he said.
As to the group's current markets, Bagdonavičius has said that they see no room for major expansion either in Lithuania or Latvia. However, the group sees some growth potential in Estonia and Bulgaria, where it plans to open 12 and 14 new stores, respectively.
"In Bulgaria, we currently hold a 2.5 percent market share. There is some potential, but people's purchasing power is low there. Modern trade's share is not high either. You have to wait for a good moment. In Estonia, we'll pay more attention to Tallinn. We have plans to open large stores there to be able to position ourselves the way we have done outside the capital," he said.
