Bilka

For other uses, see Bilka (disambiguation).
Bilka
Industry Retail
Genre Hypermarket
Founded 1970
Founder Herman Salling
Headquarters Højbjerg, Denmark
Area served
Denmark
Parent Dansk Supermarked Gruppen
Website Bilka.dk
Bilka supermarket in Ishøj, Denmark

Bilka is a Danish chain of hypermarkets. The first store opened in 1970 in Tilst, a suburb of Aarhus. The chain was founded by Herman Salling, but is now a part of Dansk Supermarked.

Name

The name Bilka is derived from the German Billiges Kaufhaus (low-price department store), which its founder, Herman Salling had encountered during his business trips to West Germany.[1]

The First Bilka Store

The first Bilka store was the first low-cost store in Denmark. With sale area of 10000 square meters and parking space for 1200 cars, this was also the largest store in Denmark.

The opening of the first Bilka store brought revision to the regional plan for Great Aarhus from 1954.[2] According to that plan the area of Aarhus was supposed to have 2 new centers, but after the opening of the first Bilka store, this plan was no longer economically viable.

The building of the store was approved by Brabrand-Årslev Parish, since the land was part of the Brabrand Parish.The developer of the store, however decided he wanted to create remote storage for Salling Group.That is the reason why the Bilka store was functioning as an open stock market with most of the goods stocked in pallets and forklifts in the aisles during open hours.

At the beginning of 2010, the first Bilka store celebrated its 40th birthday and it was completely renovated. All of the old 31 cash registers, from 1970, were replaced with 28 new modern ones and there are also 8 self-service boxes deployed. Furthermore, all the stands were completely renovated and today, this store has the largest Fruits & Vegetables department in Denmark.

Bilka stores

There are Bilka stores located in the following cities:

Year Store Area City Info
1970 Bilka 29.000 m² Tilst
1972 Bilka 28.700 m² Aalborg From 1996 a part of Aalborg Storcenter
1973 Bilka 27.800 m² Hundige Part of Waves
1976 Bilka 22.500 m² Odense
1982 Bilka 20.000 m² Ishøj Part of Ishøj Bycenter
1988 Bilka 12.600 m² Slagelse
1989 Bilka 19.900 m² Næstved Part of Næstved Storcenter
1993 Bilka 14.800 m² Holstebro
Bilka 19.400 m² Vejle Former A-Z
Bilka 19.300 m² Kolding Part of Kolding Storcenter
1994 Bilka 16.500 m² Esbjerg Former A-Z
2001 Bilka 14.200 m² Horsens
2003 Bilka 13.000 m² Ørestad Part of Field's
2005 Bilka 13.400 m² Viborg Former A-Z
2009 Bilka 11.800 m² Sønderborg Former A-Z
2011 Bilka 10.400 m² Herning Former A-Z

See also

References

  1. Bilka FAQ (in Danish)
  2. http://www.lpa.dk/Topmenuen/Publikationer/2004/Regionplanhistorien.pdf

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.