The Alcampo company will open its first hypermarket in the province of Girona before this summer, in which it has invested nine million euros. It will be located in the Espai Gironès shopping center in Salt and will employ 144 people, of which more than half are registered in the municipality.
In the absence of closing the hiring process, which began last February, 53% of the workforce lives in Salt, one of the municipalities with the highest unemployment rate in the province. 35% of future workers are registered in the neighboring city, Girona, and the remaining 12% in other parts of the district. For now, 80% of the selection process is closed.
The one in Salt will be the first hypermarket that the company, which belongs to the French group Auchan, opens in the province of Girona. The brand has been present in Catalonia since 1990, with the opening of its first center in Sant Quirze del Vallès (Vallès Occidental).
It currently has 55 stores, of which nine are hypermarkets and 46 are supermarkets. Of these, 44 are franchisees. The majority are located in the province of Barcelona. In total, the firm employs more than 2,000 people.
A figure to which the 144 new jobs that will be generated by the center of Salt, which is currently under construction, will soon be added. The forecast, as indicated this morning by the director of Alcampo Salt-Girona, José Alejandro Marcos, is that it could open around this summer, although at the moment there is no specific opening date.
The space will occupy practically double the surface area of ??the previous supermarket that was located in the Espai Gironès shopping center. Caprabo closed its premises, of about 2,500 square meters, in September 2022 and shortly after, work began to enable the new space.
Those responsible for economic promotion of the Salt City Council highlight the “great opportunity” that the hypermarket will represent “for the municipality and the job placement” of its neighbors. In March the unemployment rate in Salt stood at 13.56%, a figure that reached 17% for women. It is one of the highest percentages in the province, whose unemployment rate is around 8.3%.
The center’s human resources manager, Fina Márquez, explains that the company received nearly 600 applications to fill the jobs offered (stockers, cashiers, administrators, maintenance, customer service in parapharmacy and perfumery and salespeople in the different sections of the hypermarket such as a butcher, fishmonger or pastry shop or bakery).
Access to jobs will be carried out gradually. On April 15, the first 22 people will start. The rest will join at the beginning of May. Staff will receive more than 8,200 hours of training.
Pau Jordà, the manager of Espai Gironès, was very pleased with the incorporation of the Alcampo shopping center, which he described as a “strategic partner” and highlighted the “grain of sand” that the center contributes to the creation of wealth in the area.
To the 144 direct jobs that the company will generate, indirect jobs will be added, such as the suppliers who will supply the merchandise to the hypermarket. In 2023, Alcampo made purchases of products from 727 Catalan suppliers worth more than 777 million euros, 9% more than the previous year.
The director of Alcampo Salt-Girona explains that Girona is, after Barcelona, ??the second area in Catalonia where the company acquired the most products. In total, they purchased a value of 39 million euros from 71 Girona suppliers.