Bim

On every street corner in Turkey is a bakkal, the neighbourhood grocers where customers chalk up credit and pass the time of day chatting to the family owners.

Now, nearly as ubiquitous, is the red and white logo of BIM: a discount chain that has flourished by importing the business model pursued so successfully by Germany’s Aldi but with an Islamic twist.

Bim A.Ş. is a Turkish retail company, known for offering a limited range of basic food items and consumer goods at competitive prices. Bim were the pioneers of this discount store model in Turkey.

In spite of an influx of foreign supermarkets over the past decade, retail chains account for less than half of Turkey’s grocery market – compared with about 90 per cent in western Europe. But the value of sales by discounters has almost trebled in the past five years, making it the fastest-growing part of the sector.

Much of this is down to the explosive growth of BIM, which has trebled its network in five years to almost 5,000 stores, spurring competition, driving down prices, and changing shopping habits in even the most conservative parts of rural Turkey.

“When people first came to our stores, they said ‘Is this a supermarket or a warehouse?’ There was a perception that cheap is not good,” says Haluk Dortluoglu, BIM’s chief financial officer, in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Istanbul, where a map of Turkey charts the chain’s advance into small-town Anatolia.

However, some electrical goods such as kettles and toasters, toys, clothes, shoes and soft furnishings arrive on occasional Fridays and these are sold at wholesale prices. These products come in limited number and finishes quickly. Every Friday a small selection of goods are added to increase the variety of the goods in the shop only for that week.

BİM first opened the doors in 1995 with 21 stores. Its object was to offer consumers basic food items and consumer goods at the best prices and highest quality.

During 2009, BİM continued to pursue the policy of expanding its stores and maintaining a constant turnover. A 25% increase in sales was evidence of this policy. BİM increased the number of its stores by 15% with the opening of four new regional offices and 343 new stores during the year. BİM has started its first foreign operations in Morocco and opened 25 stores in Casablanca in 2009. BİM aims to expand throughout Turkey and maintain its growth thanks to its efficient cost management policy while never compromising its quality and customer satisfaction understanding.

in the end of 2015 had reached 4972 stores in Turkey, making Bim the country’s leading food retailer. Bim does not offer franchises, all stores are owned and operated by the company itself. As well as Turkey there are 279 stores in Morocco and 185 in Egypt. In 2016 Bim A.Ş. is planning to open 600 new supermarkets in Turkey, 100 in Egypt and 80 in Morocco where the group expects 2 billions dirhams sales during the same year. In 2005 44.12% of its shares were offered to the public.