Metro Cash&Carry, the German retail chain, has started construction works on a second outlet in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city. The new hypermarket in Plovdiv, located on the Trakiya highway, will be the company's 11th in Bulgaria when it opens in November this year. The 10th Metro outlet is currently under construction in Pleven in northern Bulgaria.

The outlet, with a price tag of around 40 million euro, will have a build area of 10 000 sq m, including 7 500 sq m of retail space, and would stock over 60 000 items. The company said it has also bought a site for a new outlet in Sofia, where it already has two stores. It should welcomes its first customers in 2009.

Metro rollouts will continue at pace for the next three to four years, Metro regional manager Emilian Abadjiev said, but he declined to name the cities where the chain plans to open new outlets.

In related news, local supermarket chain Fantastico said it opened its 32nd outlet - a 24/7 store on Sofia's ring road, whose catchment area are the Dragalevtsi and Simeonovo boroughs. The 3000 sq m outlet cost six million leva to build.