New frontiers for Fnac

Ten new Fnac stores will be opening abroad in 2008. With a presence in 7 countries excluding France, the company has serious ambitions which are not held back by mere borders. 

After seven stores inaugurated in 2007, the company’s international portfolio will be enhanced with the opening of seven further new stores this year. One by one, three new Fnac stores were opened in April: one in Basel, Switzerland, one in Glyfada, Greece, and one in Viseu, Portugal.
By the end of 2008, Fnac will have a network of 63 points of sale (134 in total) in seven countries out of France. The company that specialises in retailing cultural goods and technical products has now a presence in Belgium, Brazil, Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland.
These 54 stores already account for 30% of Fnac’s sales. The objective is to reach 50% by 2011. To achieve this, the company will be speeding up its store openings at a rate of 10 to 15 new stores every year over the next 5 years.
If you’re looking for examples of Fnac’s international success, look no further than Portugal and Spain, which are two of the most profitable countries.
After 10 years’ presence in Portugal, the company now has 12 points of sale and 200,000 members. Over time there should be around twenty stores in Portugal and around thirty in Spain, compared with the 16 that are currently open.

 

The new out-of-town format store, which has been warmly welcomed in France, will be exported to Spain for the first time. This store concept provides a family-oriented clientele out for a stroll with technical products available in self-service departments with an aggressive price positioning. The store is planned to open at the Plazza Imperial retail park, around ten kilometers from Zaragoza city centre where Fnac already has one store.
In Switzerland, Fnac has just opened its first store in the German-speaking region, in a busy street in Basel city centre. The long term objective is to have ten stores in this part of the country, which is the same number as in French-speaking Switzerland. Zurich, Bern and Lucerne will be the next cities to have a Fnac store.
Internet hasn’t been left out of this deployment. Online sales already represent 7% of revenues in these countries, with highly encouraging results in Brazil and Spain. The objective is to reach 10% and so a project is being developed to harmonise the interfaces between sites for the different subsidiaries. Will Turkey be part of it? We should know soon. In fact, Fnac is planning to open in Istanbul before the end of the year. Three or four locations have already been spotted. Watch this space…