The Bookseller.com

17th May 2008

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Fnac expands in Europe

21.04.08 Barbara Casassus

The French cultural products chain of cultural product FNAC has opened three new stores outside France this month. The group, which has tripled its number of outlets abroad in the past five years, opened stores in Basel, its first in German-speaking Switzerland, at Viseu, its 13th in Portugal, and in Glysada, its second in Greece.

The group's target is to derive 50% of its turnover from beyond French borders by 2011, said Theirry Guibert, executive vice president international and development. It opened seven new stores overseas in 2007, and has been rumoured to be looking for a site in the UK.

Ten years after arriving in Portugal, the group claims to be the country's leading retailer of cultural and technology products, and to have pioneered paperback books on the market. Five of the other outlets are in Lisbon, three are in Porto and one each are in the Algarve, Coimbra, Braga and Madeira. Last year, FNAC reported a turnover of 270 million euros in Portugal, 7.9% of the chain's total and double the amount achieved in 2004. It plans to add another seven stores in Portugal by 2011.

The eight-storey Basel store, which is located in the centre of town, is FNAC's fifth in Switzerland. It also has two in Geneva, one in Lausanne and one in Fribourg.

The group's first store in Greece, in the northern outskirts of Athens in the Mall Athens shopping centre, has received more than 1.5 million customers since it opened in November 2005, the group said.

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