Casino takes retail design to Poland

Casino, France’s third largest retailer, is to expand into Eastern Europe with a hypermarket in Warsaw, Poland. Design work will be by Crabtree Hall/Plan Cr&#233atif.

Called Gigant, the hypermarket is the French retailer’s first East European venture. Crabtree Hall/ Plan Cr&#233atif is to create what is described as a completely new concept for the new-build project. The 7432m2 hypermarket will be complemented by a large shopping mall, a number of restaurants and a petrol station.

The site is “a cabbage patch at the moment”, says project architect Massimo Brookes, but the consultancy hopes that it will be on site by the autumn to complete the project by spring 1996.

“The new project will offer a significant upgrade to the current standard of food retailing in Poland, which is presently limited to low specification warehouse and discount shopping formats,” according to a Crabtree Hall/Plan Cr&#233atif spokeswoman.

The Casino group is looking to open two more hypermarkets in Eastern Europe.