Mega Market Suitor Sees Eye to Eye With Histadrut

YERUSHALAYIM
A Mega Bair store in Jerusalem , on January 17, 2016. The court issued Sunday order a temporary stay of proceedings mega network. Meanwhile, the workers' council announced that Mega decided to disable the activity of all branches of the Mega on Monday. Photo by Lior Mizrahi/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** îâä áòéø îâä ñåôøîø÷è ôùéèú øâì áéú îùôè òåáãéí ä÷ôàú äìéëéí ôéèåøéí ëìëìä
A Mega Ba’ir store in Yerushalayim. (Lior Mizrahi/Flash90)

The winner of the four-way contest to buy up the assets of the broke Mega supermarket chain appears to be Yeinot Bitan, a Rosh Haayin-based supermarket chain that caters largely to traditional and religious Israelis. Yeinot Bitan, for example, was the first supermarket chain in the country to sell only Beis Yosef hechsher meats at its meat counters.

Last week, the group that has been managing the chain’s affairs since its bankruptcy earlier this year recommended that the chain be the one chosen to purchase Mega, and on Sunday, the company said that it had concluded a successful meeting with representatives of the Histadrut. As a result, said union chairman Avi Nissenkorn, “we have saved 3,500 jobs. Yeinot Bitan was very fair to the workers.”

According to Erez Eisenberg, deputy director of marketing at the chain, “we came to some important arrangements at the meeting. We hope that the purchase will go through, and together with the workers we will be able to restore Mega to its former glory.”

Established in 1993, Yeinot Bitan currently has 71 stores (some operating under the name Yad Yitzchak), and employs 5,500 workers. If the deal to buy Mega goes through, the chain will acquire dozens of supermarkets, making it the second largest in Israel, behind Shufersal.

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