Seven of the leading retail chains in Bulgaria have invested more than $ 3.8 billion and hired around 5,500 new employees in 2017. The bulk of these investments were aimed at expanding the network of Kaufland, Billa, Lidl, dm, METRO, T-Market and Deichmann on the Bulgarian market, according to a survey of the Modern Commerce Association, which includes the seven chains. By the end of last year, the listed companies had more than 430 stores across the country. Of these, Billa has the largest number of sites - a total of 115. Second is Lidl with 92 stores. Following are dm with 72 branches, T-Market - 65, Kaufland - 56, Deichmann - with 22 stores and METRO with 13 sites.

The association points out that the participants in the survey work with over 1000 Bulgarian producers, several of them successfully exporting to foreign markets as a result of their partnership with the retail chains. According to the poll, more than half of the goods in the chains are Bulgarian producers and in some of them the share reaches 75%. "As of the end of 2017, 26 Bulgarian companies successfully sell their products in branches of the retail chains abroad," the association adds. In the survey, the Kaufland, Billa, Lidl, dm, METRO, T-Market and Deichmann chains account for a total of 18,600 people in Bulgaria, and for one year the number of their employees has increased by 5430 people.

"Trade chains contribute to the development of the labor market and the reduction of unemployment and the creation of jobs in ecosystem companies serving their businesses as cleaning, security and maintenance companies," the association said. "Every month in the shops of only six members of our association pass almost 14, 5 million people, which speaks about the confidence of Bulgarian consumers.With the introduction of our companies in modern trade created a new model of shopping, which is entirely in favor of the client, "the executive director of the association Yordan Mateev stated in connection with the poll.