Baumax suppliers to prepare for opening discounts

According to information from Austrian newspapers and news portals, Obi is close to taking over at least 50 Austrian Baumax stores. Obi currently operates ten DIY stores in Austria. The Austrian Obi suppliers have been told to prepare for opening discounts, as reported in the news portal “nachrichten.at”. Starting from the autumn, the DIY retailer will operate approximately 50 stores more.According to a report in Manager magazine, Obi will not buy but rent the stores. The magazine states that Obi will continue to operate 69 of the total 106 Baumax stores in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia. The commercial real estate developer Supernova, based in Graz, was named as owner of the acquired stores. Obi has submitted an application for approval to the European Commission, as renting property also falls under the rules of merger control. The same sources state that the remaining stores will be taken over mainly by Bauhaus.