The company CEPOS – Czech Food Trade joint stock company - was set up in October 1996 by 24 regional wholesales with durable food products, operating on the entire territory of the Czech Republic. The establishment itself, same as the legal act, was preceded by an almost two-year, quite a heated discussion among the potential members, during which the mission and parameters of our company were defined. Despite the disparity of opinions of the representatives of the individual future owners of the wholesale group, the common goal finally won – to combine the buying potential, thus creating the conditions for negotiating of the business terms which would be competitive with entries of foreign chains which began to expand on our market at that time.
Getting the BALA s.r.o. retail network
The coming year 1997 was an important milestone for us. During this year agreements were entered into with all the key suppliers, which started up the business in form of centralised invoicing. Another important step was obtaining a network of retail stores BALA s.r.o., thanks to which we managed to acquire a distribution channel for our wholesales.
Expansion to Slovakia
In 1999 we initiated an establishment of company Slovpos a.s. in Slovakia, including the subsidiary "Maloobchodni sit BALA s.r.o." (Retail Network BALA, Ltd.), built on the identical principles. Thanks to a less competitive environment on the Slovakian market with foodstuffs, these companies achieved a high pace of growth in the coming years and a significant current market share at the same time. In 2007, the Retail Network BALA, Ltd., achieved a retail turnover of 6.6% in Slovakia, resulting in the 5th position among all the Slovakian retailers. Between 1997 and 2000 the number of member wholesale distributors of Cepos increased to the maximum number of 31, and the company "Maloobchodni sit BALA s.r.o." associated more than 500 retail units.
Overcoming the crisis and development of the Cepos Group
In the coming years of 2000 – 2002, a significant portion of the wholesale distributors had to face serious economic problems which, in a number of cases, resulted even in termination of their activity. It can be said, with the benefit of hindsight, that in that period the company CEPOS – Czech Food Trade joint stock company – passed a crisis. On one hand, it got into a secondary insolvency and, on the other hand, it had to adopt rapid efficient measures leading to making the business of the member wholesales stricter, including an introduction of high sanction fees. Besides that, the company had to convince the others about the viability of its concept. One of the measures was more than denary increase of the basic capital of the company by those shareholders who remained the majority shareholders up to the present day.
A set of adopted measures and setups of new regulations brought stability to the company and, from 2002 up to 2007, also a regular increase of its turnover by more than 10% year-on-year. In addition, several successful acquisitions of smaller wholesales by larger wholesales were executed within the Cepos Group.
Those years were also significant with positive development of our subsidiary "Maloobchodni sit BALA s.r.o." It included categorisation of the stores into several formulas, expansion of the marketing activities and establishment of a “Bala Gastro” division for our customers, operating in tourism. At the beginning of 2008 "Maloobchodni sit BALA s.r.o." registered 670 retail member stores and more than 300 gastro-units.
The company CEPOS – Ceska potravinarska obchodni a.s. (Czech Food Trade joint stock company) nowadays
The year 2008 is a breakthrough. In the middle of the year, the trade alliance Cepos strengthened its position by means of two important wholesale distributors – Ekostyl s.r.o. and Zavu CZ s.r.o. and, at the beginning of 2009, a decision was taken to accept another strategic local player – VO Rapo, owning a franchise retail network called "Brnenka". Realistically, the newly expanded Cepos could thus achieve a yearly turnover exceeding 3.5 billion crowns in 2009, thus strengthening its position of the Czech independent market´s leader.
In early April 2010 the wholesale distributors - Ekostyl CZ s.r.o. and ZAVA CZ s.r.o. determined membership in Čepos.
In 2011, there was an expansion of the alliance with a wholesale Flosman a.s. In 2012 the nationwide distribution of chilled milk products was launched.