Standa was an Italian chain of

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

History

It was founded in 1931 as ''Magazzini Standard'' (Società Anonima Magazzini Standard) by a former executive of

UPIM UPIM ("Unico Prezzo Italiano Milano") is an Italian chain of midmarket department stores specialising in clothes for men, women and children, items for the home, and cosmetics and perfumes. It currently operates 135 directly owned stores and more t ...

and subsequently renamed as ''Standa'' (

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for Società Tutti Articoli Nazionali Dell'Abbigliamento). When it was bought by

Montedison Edison S.p.A. is an Italian electric utility company headquartered in Milan. The company was established in 1884 and acquired by Electricité de France in 2012. Edison employs more than 5,000 people in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. C ...

in 1966 it had 126 branches all over Italy. It was bought by

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

in July 1988, through

Fininvest Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A., known as Fininvest S.p.A., is an Italian holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi. Structure The Fininvest group is co ...

, which in 1998 sold the "non-food" stores to the

Coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

due to a financial crisis. In 1999, the grocery store chain was disbanded and the stores sold by geographical location: the stores based in northern Italy were sold to

REWE Group The REWE Group is a German diversified retail and tourism co-operative group based in Cologne, Germany. The name REWE comes from Revisionsverband der Westkauf-Genossenschaften", meaning "Western Buying Co-operatives Auditing Association". The mos ...

and those based in southern Italy were sold to

Conad Conad ('), stylized CONAD, is an Italian retail store brand which operates one of the largest supermarket chains in Italy. Created in 1962, Conad is a cooperative system of entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of e ...

. The Standa trademark is now officially owned by REWE, which in 2009 rebranded its supermarkets as

Billa Billa may refer to: Films *Billa (1980 film), ''Billa'' (1980 film), 1980 Indian Tamil film *Billa (2002 film), ''Billa'' (2002 film), 2002 Pakistani Punjabi film *Billa (2007 film), ''Billa'' (2007 film), 2007 Indian Tamil film, remake of ''Bil ...

. In 2014 REWE sold its Standa/Billa supermarkets chain to the French retailer

Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, which ...

. A ''Standa'' store was opened by

REWE Rewe (stylized as REWE; ) is a supermarket chain in Germany and the main brand of Rewe Group headquartered in Cologne. The name originated from an abbreviation of the original name "Revisionsverband der Westkauf-Genossenschaften" (Audit unio ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. The store was later rebranded as REWE Markt.

References

External links

Restructuring of retail group means end of StandaItalian Franchising Directory
Italian brands Companies based in Milan Retail companies of Italy Retail companies established in 1931 Retail companies disestablished in 1999 Companies based in Veneto 1931 establishments in Italy 1999 disestablishments in Italy {{retail-company-stub