Food retailer Edeka is expanding its business: in addition to its own drugstores, organic supermarkets will also attract customers in the future. Under the name "Naturkind", a first store run by an independent Edeka businessman is to open in late summer in 
Hamburg, as CEO Markus Mosa announced in the Hanseatic city. Two or three more shops are planned. "This is the right way, because customers are looking for specific assortments in specialist markets," said one company spokesman.
For the time being, expansion is slow but steady
If the concept works, it should be expanded within the cooperative group, announced Mosa. "At the start we are still somewhat slow, but when we get rolling, it's hard to stop." At the same time, entry into the drugstore market, which Edeka is pushing ahead with regional Hamburg chain Budnikowsky, is to be continued this year. There will be up to 15 markets, mostly in southern Germany and "perhaps Berlin". With its own drugstores, which have a more abundant assortment than the departments in the Edeka stores, the retailer is confronting dm and Rossmann nationwide.