Migros (company)

Migros Türk Ticaret A.Ş. is the biggest chain of supermarkets in Turkey. The company for food and non-food item retailing is owned by the Koç Group. Its top executives are Rahmi Koç as chairman of the board and Aziz Bulgu, the general manager.

Together with Migros supermarkets, Şok discount stores, international Ramstore shopping centers, online shopping on Internet, wholesale stores and mobile sale units, Migros Türk is serving in 7 different shopping formats around 160 million customers. As of 2005, it gives service with 191 Migros stores, having 803.000 m2 closed area, and 305 Şok stores domestically, and with 54 Ramstores in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Macedonia and Russia making 549 stores globally. Migros stores are situated in 41 cities in Turkey, while Şok Stores stand in 22 cities. The company employs 4,000 personnel and sells around 75,000 products.

The logo of Migros Türk is very similar to the logo of the Swiss Migros. As in Switzerland, the supermarkets are categorized in three size classes of M, MM and MMM:

M Migros-supermarkets are selling basic consumables and a limited number of non-food products,
MM Migros-stores offer a wider range of non-food articles besides the basic consumables,
MMM Migros-stores have a larger product spectrum ranging from stationery to textile products, electric household appliances to bakeries, books and cosmetics.

Migros sells own label articles beside private label products. The article price level is generally above average. Migros offers its customers a club card, which entitles promotions and special discounts. There are currently 7 millions of customers holding Migros Club Card.

History

Istanbul Municipality founded in 1954 Migros Türk as a joint initiative with Swiss Migros Cooperatives Union in order to obtain food supplies and consumables directly from the producers and to offer these products to the residents of Istanbul in hygienic conditions and at economic prices. Initially, Migros Türk was operating with 45 sales trucks, same as in Switzerland, and then opened various stores, the first one 1957 in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. During that period, Migros could gain the confidence and interest of the people in Istanbul.

In 1975, the majority shares of the company were transferred to the Koç Group. Then after, Migros initiated a new understanding of operation and rapidly increased the number of stores in Istanbul. With its huge warehouse, Migros established the necessary infrastructure for purchasing fruits and vegetables directly from producers and farmers thus supplying the consumers with fresh and high quality products.

In 1981, the main warehouse of Migros was opened, which is still in use with some alterations and improvements, wherein foods and other perishables are stored in hygienic conditions. New investments have been made in an effort to store more healthy products in hygienic packages, including a meat-processing center.

Nationwide

Following Istanbul, the company opened 4 large stores in İzmir in 1988 and started to invest on infrastructure for the Aegean region. Migros, known as "honest retailer" because of its lower prices and hygienic products, has been serving its consumers through 34 stores in 2 provinces as of the end of 1989.

Migros pioneered for larger store formats offering the consumer more alternatives with the world quality, by carefully taking changes in the consumer habits into consideration in the late 1990 and early 1991. Besides its neighborhood stores in Istanbul and İzmir, it also has dedicated to open larger stores in new residential and suburban areas, and introduced its MM supermarket in İzmir followed by two MMM stores in Istanbul in 1991. In these stores with large utilization space, almost anything, from stationery to glassware, house ware, books, music ware and textile articles besides food, are offered twelve hours at seven days a week.

Another novelty was part-time employment, which offers new job opportunities to university students, housewives and retired people. Training programs for the personnel have been developed. With the bimonthly released publication "Migroskop", special discounts, advantages and inexpensive shopping deals have been announced regularly since late 1990.

As from the late 1990, almost all of the old stores have been renovated, and stores have been equipped with full automation systems, introducing computerized and automatic cash registers to customers and providing Migros with a modern appearance. In 1991 Migros became an open-to-public company.

Migros extended then its chain of supermarkets in other big cities like Antalya, Ankara and Bursa but also in holiday resorts including Marmaris, Bodrum, Silivri and Yalova as well.

In 1992, payment with credit card and customer satisfaction questionnaires were introduced.

On its 40th anniversary, the company expanded in Ankara with two more stores and in Adana and Mersin. In 1994, Migros was named "the most successful company in Turkey" and was also shown as one of the most successful companies in Europe by the Euromoney magazine. 1995 brought a rapid growth to Migros with the opening of stores in 17 provinces, including Southeastern Anatolia and Adana, Gaziantep, Edirne, Tekirdağ and Eskişehir provinces.

In order to provide broader masses of public with its synergism, Migros introduced in 1995 its low-cost brand Şok as one more novelty. Started in Istanbul, the discount markets expanded very soon to Ankara and İzmir. Discount store chain Şok supermarkets are designed to stock all household needs of consumers. It offers basic products like meat, fruits and vegetables, non-food products, drinks, detergents, paper-products to the consumer at a very reasonable price.

Rapid growth

In 1996, Migros Türk achieved the goal of setting up a new store every week and by the end of the year established 51 stores. That year, it opened a supermarket in Erzurum and by the end of year it was serving 75 million people with 124 stores within 20 cities in 6 of a total 7 geographical regions in Turkey. In 1997, it increased the number of stores to 169 at home servicing 125 million customers. Opening one new store each weak as previous years, it opened 50 new stores and shopping centers in 1998 and expanded its service to 27 cities in total. Continuing to expand both at home and abroad, Migros strengthened its leadership in retail sector. Throughout 1999, the growth rate reached to 2 stores per week on average, signifying 108 new stores and 2 shopping centers being added to the Migros service network.

Migros was not only offering top quality services but also is the one to enable the consumer to make use of the latest technology. In this way, Migros was first to introduce the electronic shelf labels to the customer.

Transnational

In 1996, Migros Türk opened its first store in a foreign country, a Ramstore in Baku, Azerbaijan. The next year, the second shopping center abroad was opened in Moscow, Russia becoming a meeting point for public on shopping, trade and social basis. With the success of the first Ramstore in Baku, 4 new stores were opened in Azerbaijan. By the end of 1997, Ramstore was operating in 5 stores in Azerbaijan.

Migros opened second Ramstore shopping center larger then the first one in Moscow Maryina Roscha district and increased the number of stores to 7 abroad. In 1998 a new Ramstore shopping center's foundation laid on in Kazakhstan.

Developing rapidly abroad, dispensing the Ramstores to 3 countries, the number of stores and shopping malls reached to 11, Almaty being the first and largest shopping center of Kazakhstan.

Currently, there are 3 Ramstores in Baku, 8 Ramstore shopping centers in Moscow, 41 Ramstores in other cities of Russia and 1 Ramstore shopping center in Kazakhstan, 1 Ramstore in Astana and 4 in Almaty , 4 Ramstores in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1 Ramstore shopping center and hypermarket in Skopje, Macedonia, making up 54 Ramstores that are internationally in service.

Pioneering

Migros became pioneer in electronic commerce via internet, by introducing Migros cyber-shopping, built on a comprehensive system and technology. Virtual market started operating in Istanbul and Izmir first, expanded then nationwide.

"Self-service checkouts" were introduced to Turkish consumers in the giant store in Ankara for the first time in Turkey and in Europe.

By the end of 1999, the number of Migros Club Card has reached to 2.5 million with all the advantages that have been offered. Migros online shopping as well as developing has also expanded in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir.

Turkey’s first online shopping center Kangurum started operating throughout Turkey. Kangurum hosted more than 25,000 products of selected 48 leader stores from various sectors and increased this selection to 60 different stores by the end of the year. All kinds of orders ranging from refrigerators, wedding rings, toys, bouquet arrangements, tomatoes to vacation reservations are available 24 hours, reaching the farthest corners of the country.

Migros has presented the Bakkalım store (literally: My Grocery) format in the first quarter of 2000 by revitalizing groceries, the old, familiar friends in a sort of distributor arrangement. Gaining popularity in a short matter of time, Bakkalım’s have begun to spread in Istanbul, İzmir and Ankara, their number reaching 700.

Throughout 2001, Migros Online, has added Antalya and Adana to its service area. In 2001 Kangurum Online Shopping Center operating in 58 stores with 28 product categories totaling up to 75.000 products, has introduced wholesale market, which enables wholesale transactions through internet, B2B providing the base for corporate transactions.

Within the course of 2001, Migros Turk has introduced 3 Migros stores in MMM format, 5 Migros stores in MM format and 3 Migros stores in M format, which totals up to 11 stores, as well as 19 Şok discount stores, 1 Ramstore shopping center in Moscow, 1 Migros Shopping Center in Antalya and 2 Ramstores in Moscow and Sofia into service life, which counts up to a total number of 34 new investments. By the end of 2001, Migros was offering its high quality service in 461 stores and welcoming 160 million customers annually

Throughout 2002, Migros has made a grand total of 41 new investments, 10 of them are Migros stores namely 1 MMM, 5 MM, 4 M and a total 23 Şok stores in Turkey. The rest of these are abroad and dispersed in the following countries: 6 of the rest in Russia, 1 in Bulgaria and 1 in Azerbaijan. With the addition of these new investments, Migros has reached 425 points of sale at the end of year 2002. In all the 7 geographical regions of its homeland, Migros has 65 M stores, 58 MM stores, 30 MMM stores and 3 shopping centers and hypermarkets. 3 Ramstores in Baku, 15 Ramstores in Moscow, 3 Ramstores in Kazakhstan, 2 Ramstores in Sofia are the total number of investments of Migros outside the borders of Turkey at the end of 2002.

Ramstore in Baku, which had totally ruined after a fire caused by technical reasons in 2001 has been introduced back to service. Within a very short period such as 6 months, Ramstore Hatai has opened its doors again with an investment of $4.5 million. The first step of Migros in Europe was the opening of Ramstore Sofia in May 2001. In July 2002, the second Ramstore in this country has opened its doors to its customers gathering a big deal of interest. The first Ramstore with the widespread excitement it aroused, has formed a basis for the second investment which only a period of one year after the first, has started servicing Sofia inhabitants at a very central location of downtown that is alive 24 hours and very easy to reach.

Throughout the year 2003, Migros located itself in many strategic points of Turkey. Setting it's goals through pioneering in terms of modernization, it opened the first retail store of Turkey with direct access to subway in Metrocity, a shopping mall in the Levent district of Istanbul.