Grocer BİM could evaluate Canada if invited: CEO

TÜRKİYE’S leading discount food retailer BİM has not received any invitation or been officially asked by the Canadian government to operate in the North American country, its CEO said.

But the company would be open to evaluating the market if an invitation was to be extended, Haluk Dortluoğlu said.

Dortluoğlu’s comments to Reuters late on Sunday came in response to reports that said the company was among potential grocery chains that would be asked to invest in Canada.

“We have not received any official invitation from Canada. As far as we understand, it is an issue of an internal assessment within the Canadian government that has been leaked to the press,” he said.

“Canada was not a market we had recently considered to enter. But if we are asked so by the Canadian government, of course, we will make an evaluation. We will analyze the market and express an opinion,” he added.

According to some media reports, Canada’s federal government is seeking a foreign grocery store operator to come to the country in an effort to increase competition and provide more options to residents.

A list of a dozen potential candidates include BİM, along with Germany’s Aldi, Lidl and French Les Mousquetaires, the reports said.

Hard-discount grocer BİM, the leading food retailer in Türkiye in terms of sales, is currently operating in Morocco and Egypt, in addition to its home country.

It operates 700 stores in Morocco and 360 in Egypt.

Regarding a question about whether it would be challenging logistically and in terms of supply for a retail chain from Türkiye to enter the Canadian market, Dortluoğlu stated that as a food retailer, they already primarily focus on local procurement, so such a situation would not pose a logistical problem.

He also mentioned that they primarily conduct local procurement in their operations in Morocco and Egypt.

According to the latest financial figures released by the company, BİM’s nine-month sales stood at TL 184 billion ($5.64 billion) by the end of the third quarter in 2023.

Its net income was TL 8 billion in the same period. The company has not released its full year figures yet.