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The Greek representative of French retail group Carrefour, MarinopoulosGroup, has stopped payments to suppliers in Bulgaria due to temporary financial difficulties.
According to reports of Regal, a specialized magazine for the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) business in Bulgaria, citing producers speaking on condition of anonymity, overdue payments most probably amount to a total of BGN 20-30 M and the average period of delay is 40-45 days.
The most likely reason for the temporary difficulties of the retail chain is believed to be the Balkan expansion of the franchisee, MarinopoulosGroup.
The problem with delayed payments surfaced in early 2013, while in April the company tried to extend the deferred payment periods through contract addenda, and these days the firm started rejecting confirmed supply orders.
The delayed payments by the retail chain are causing financial difficulties for a number of suppliers, while others have stopped working with the company altogether.
The first signs of financial problems at MarinopoulosGroup surfaced in September 2012, when some banks started rejecting to insure payments from Carrefour.
Although no official reason for the financial difficulties has been provided, the idea about the fast expansion dominates.
According to the most popular explanation, the problems were caused by the recent purchase of the Euromax supermarket chain in Albania by Carrefour's Greek Marinopoulos franchise arm.
The first Carrefour store in Skopje opened in 2012, the expansion of the chain in Serbia and Bulgaria is underway.
In the course of a few months only, the company opened three hypermarkets, two in Sofia and one in Stara Zagora, and a number of smaller stores in different cities.
The new stores were most probably opened because MarinopoulosGroup had to fulfill its commitments to its franchise partner Carrefour.
In Bulgaria, Carrefour is a mid-size store chain, with 18 sites in the country.
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