First member in Lithuania

ZEUS, the German cooperative, now has a member in Lithuania as well. Since the end of March the head office in Wuppertal has been servicing the Rubicon retail group. The new member company was founded in Vilnius in 1990 and last year achieved sales of € ten mio. The group employs a staff of around 150 at four DIY stores in Vilnius, Panevezys, Siauliai and Klaipeda. At present all these outlets, which have a combined retail area of 10 800 m², operate under the name of Rubikon. Over the next two years they are to be refurbished as Bauklotz stores within the ZEUS distribution structure. In addition to this the group is planning to open four new Bauklotz stores with garden centres. Two locations are scheduled for Vilnius and the other two for Kaunas and Klaipeda. Over and above this, Rubikon intends to establish a buying office in Vilnius, since 30 smaller DIY stores already at present carry out their purchasing through the Lithuanian group.