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SES to build shopping centre in Ljubljana

SES European Shopping Centers, a subsidiary of the Austrian Spar Group, will build a shopping centre in Slovene capital Ljubljana, it was announced today (Mon).

SES chief Marcus Wild confirmed a report by business newspaper WirtschaftsBlatt claiming that it would invest 100 million Euros.

Construction will begin at the beginning of 2011 and end in September 2012.

The centre in the north-west Siska section of the city will have 90 stores covering an area of 38,000 square metres, of which 6,000 will be public areas including a library and a kindergarten, and employ 700 people.

Wild said that 50 per cent of the centre�s area had already been rented, including to Spar subsidiaries Interspar and Hervis.

He said the timing was right despite the recession: "It is clearly an anti-cyclical investment. We will stimulate the construction industry, which is in need of business. There is no better location in the city. The Slovene market for international retailers will be very interesting in two years."

He added that SES had had to wait for eight years after proposing construction of the centre because of red tape.

Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic said the city would be among European leaders in per capita square metres of shopping centres.

He had tried to prevent SES from getting permission to build the centre when he was head of rival Mercator a few years ago, but has fully supported the project as mayor.

SES has 23 shopping centres in five countries and considers itself market leader in Austria and Slovenia. It has four centres in Slovenia, two in Ljubljana and one each in Maribor and Celje.

Spar Austria recently announced expansion plans for this year after seeing its 2009 turnover jump by 3.5 per cent year on year.

Spar Austria chief executive Gerhard Drexel said last month the company�s turnover had soared by 3.5 per cent to 9.8 billion Euros last year compared to 2008.

He added overall turnover reached 11.2 billion Euros if its internationally operating SES Spar European Shopping Center group�s businesses were included in the statistics.

But he also pointed out that the past year had been tough: "The foodstuffs and supermarket industry is not as dependent on the state of the economy as other sectors. The last year was nevertheless a difficult one."

Drexel said economic developments would not keep Spar Austria from making investments this year.

"We will brave the economic crisis and invest around 450 million Euros in Austria and our foreign branches in 2010," he said, adding that the focus was on expansion and modernisation of existing supermarkets.

Austrian Times

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business supermarket invest Drexel Ljubljana capital turnover European shopping international Spar investment billion Construction industry Euros Slovene expansion Shopping Austrian

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