French retail group has announced that it will rebrand all of its supermarkets to the Simply Market banner by the end of this year following a three-year pilot programme.

Under the plans, Auchan subsidiaries Atac in France, Sabeco In Spain, Sma in Italy and Elea in Poland will all be converted to the new discount supermarket format, which the retail group has been testing since 2005.

However, the retailer intends to retain the Atak name for its 20 stores in Russia – a number that it plans to double by the end of 2009.

According to Isabel Cavill at retail analyst Planet Retail, the remodelling programme will cost a total of €280m, of which €100m is reserved for France where 100 stores out of a total of 286, have already been converted to Simply Market.

Auchan managing director Denis Simon said: “Between now and 2015, we hope to be operating 500 Simply Market outlets in France.”

Mr Simon said the move had been made in response to the global financial crisis and consumer concerns about low prices, which Planet Retail said had been defined as the number one preoccupation of French shoppers.

Ms Cavill said the group has already converted 110 Atac stores to Simply Market in France and has reported that sales from the rebranded stores improved by between 12 and 13 per cent. This is in contrast to those remaining Atac outlets, where sales are said to have declined by between 1 and 2 per cent.

A further 10 Simply Market outlets are scheduled to open in France this year and a further twenty in 2010, as a result of a the new property law that allows stores of less than 1,000 square metres to open without planning permission.

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