German giant Kaufland eyes five superstores in Australia | Progresiv
German supermarket giant Kaufland is poised to open five new superstores as it charges ahead with plans to shakeup Australia’s fiercely competitive 90 billion dollars grocery sector. 
Kaufland, part of the world’s fourth largest grocery conglomerate, has put its foot on a development site in Melbourne’s sprawling eastern suburbs for about 16.5 million billion dollars, giving it access to 3.5 hectares of land in Chirnside Park, one of the city’s growth suburbs.
The parcel, next to a Dan Murphy’s liquor outlet at 266-268 Maroondah Highway, is part of a large suburban infill site expected to be filled with housing, being marketed by CBRE’s Mark Wizel, Julian White, Nathan Mufale and Lewis Tong.
Kaufland is actively scoping sites in Sydney but doesn’t appear to have settled any transactions at this stage.
The supermarket and general merchandise chain announced its arrival in Australia in October last year when it snapped up the Le Cornu site in the Adelaide suburb of Forestville for 25 million dollars.
It has since submitted plans to local authorities for a two-storey 34.6 million dollars supermarket.
Early in 2017, Kaufland took a lease on a head office in South Melbourne to house its newly-recruited staff and is still actively advertising for at least 26 workers in positions ranging from project managing to confectionary buying.
Within weeks of its first purchase, the retail chain had taken ownership of a second site – a former Bunnings shed in Dandenong South, in Melbourne’s south east, which it purchased from Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust (BWP) for 16.4 million dollars.
Fairfax Media understands Kaufland, controlled by the giant Schwarz Group in Germany, has negotiated options over two other BWP-owned former Bunnings sites in Melbourne, one in Oakleigh South and the other in the northern suburbs of Epping. (www.smh.com.au)
