Sklavenitis is a major supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chain in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. In terms of total market share is the third biggest retail group in Greece behind Carrefour Marinopoulos

Carrefour Marinopoulos

Carrefour Marinopoulos is a Greek retailer. It was formed in 1999 as a 50-50 joint venture between the Greek Marinopoulos Group and the French Carrefour Group. It is the biggest retail chain in Greece in terms of both turnover and number of stores. As of 2008, the company operates over 300 stores...

 and the Belgian owned Alpha-Beta Vassilopoulos

Alfa-Vita Vassilopoulos

"Alpha-Beta Vassilopoulos" or simply "AB" is a supermarket chain based in Greece. - History :The company was established in 1939 in Athens, Greece, when the brothers Gerasimos and Haralambos Vassilopoulos opened a small grocery shop, on Voulis Street, in downtown Athens...

. The company was founded in 1954 by Ioannis Sklavenitis (1924-1993), Spyros Sklavenitis (1927-2006) and Miltiadis Papadopoulos ( -1999) initially as a wholesaler. The first supermarket was opened in 1969 in the Peristeri

Peristeri

Peristeri is a suburban municipality in Athens, Greece, located about 5 km NW of the downtown area. The municipality is bordered by the Cephissus/Cephissos River, Athinon Avenue , Chaidari in the west and Petroupoli in the northwest, with a size of around...

 suburb of Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. As of 2007, the company has 38 stores mainly concentrated in the greater Athens area, but it aims to expand nationwide in the near future. The average Sklavenitis store is significantly larger than most of its competitors, thus explaining the company's ability to generate increased sales with a relative small number of stores. The firm still belongs to the Sklavenitis family, although it has been rumoured that international retail giants, such as Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

 and Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

, are interested in acquiring the company. However the Sklavenitis family have shown no signs that they are willing to consider a takeover bid.