Jumbo must postpone opening after complaint from competitor

Supermarket chain Jumbo will not officially open its new store in Lommel on October 25 as planned. This is because one of the competitors submitted an objection to the permit, and it was temporarily withdrawn…

Everything is ready to open the new Jumbo in Koning Leopoldlaan in Lommel. The official ceremony was scheduled to be held at the site where the Cleblo furniture store was located on October 25. “But one of our competitors is trying to block our access, so he objected to the permit at the extreme,” says company spokesman Paul Brouwers.

The competitor’s effort resulted in an unexpected revocation of the permit already granted. “We are consulting with the relevant government authorities to fix this matter as quickly as possible and hope to be able to open our 31st store as soon as possible. As soon as we know more about the new opening date, we will of course inform the general public,” Brouwers added.

Jumbo deeply regrets the turn of events. “The fact that some competitors seem to find it necessary to try to block access to jumbo through legal wrangling, rather than competing in the market on price, range and service, is not good news for Belgian consumers,” says the spokesman. “In any case, it does not benefit the diversity and pluralism that supermarkets offer in the market, and permit application processes are improperly affected in this way for competition purposes.”

Despite this opposition, Jumbo is determined to grow further in the Belgian market. “We are optimistic and have different locations in the pipeline for this year and next, so that our store network will continue to expand. We also hope to welcome Belgian customers to Lommel as soon as possible.”