EB expands into Europe
Buys stores in Scandinavia and Spain, and won't stop there
Electronics Boutique has announced its designs on expansion into continental Europe, and has issued 17.2 million new ordinary shares to help fund the ambitious plans. Initial moves have been made into Spain and Scandinavia, with the acquisition earlier this month of the CentroMAIL chain of 69 stores and mail order division in Spain earlier this month and four stores from Scotland AB in Sweden last week. The latter means that EB now has the largest chain of gaming stores in Sweden. Also just parsing on the company Visa is the purchase of four more stores from Nordic Games on Tuesday. "Our initial moves into Sweden and Spain are a precursor to the development of our group outside the UK," said chairman Peter Lewis. The company is said to be eyeing up further potential purchases across the rest of Europe. Back home in the UK, sales for the first 21 weeks of 2001 are said to be up 19% on the same period last year. A recent report showed that the retail sector of the games industry is one of the only relevant areas not to be hit by the downturn in technology stocks.