Less than a week after it was reported that Ari Real Estate (Arena) Investment had signed an MOU to sell half of its holdings in 110 dunams (27.5 acres) of land near Ashdod to JLTV and the Fischer-Bronfman Group, franchisees of Swedish home furnishing chain IKEA, it now emerges that IKEA's neighbor on the site will be French retail chain Carrefour, Trend reports with reference to Globes.
The land, close to the southern entrance to Ashdod and near the railway station, is zoned for commercial and industrial use. It is not yet known how much Electra Consumer Products will invest in constructing the Carrefour branch on the site, but the company reported to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange yesterday that the average gross cost of adapting a Yeinot Bitan store to the format of Carrefour will be some NIS 3 million.
Last week, Electra Consumer Products, which holds the Yeinot Bitan supermarket chain (which includes the Mega chain), signed a twenty-year franchise agreement with Carrefour, automatically renewable for a further twenty years, with the possibility of additional renewals. Electra Consumer Products' notice to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange yesterday stated that Yeinot Bitan would rebrand its stores and those of the Mega and Shuk Lamehadrin chains and adapt them to the Carrefour brand according to a timetable to be agreed between the sides.
The sides have also agreed that within the next few months a joint committee will be set up to examine the product range and its expansion, and deal with kashrut limitations, pricing, and the timetable for opening the stores under the new brand. The first stores are expected to be converted by the end of 2022, and 90% of the stores will be converted within three years.