Malta’s five Arkadia supermarkets have been consolidated into the SPAR brand following a business deal that saw the Azzopardi Group acquire the chain.

The five former Arkadia outlets in St Julian’s, Gozo, Naxxar, Swatar, and Valletta join the 16 existing SPAR, EUROSPAR and INTERSPAR outlets across Malta, continuing a period of rapid recent growth for the supermarket chain.

WhosWho.mt recently revealed that the Azzopardi Group had acquired the Arkadia supermarket chain from Mizzi Organisation.

Best known for its fish farming business Azzopardi Fisheries, the group was given an exclusive license by SPAR to represent the Dutch retailer brand locally in 2016. It opened its first SPAR store two years later in Marsaxlokk.

Azzopardi also operates the Miracle Foods chain, which focuses on meat, fish and frozen food.

In a market update last week, Mizzi Organisation Finance plc confirmed that the stores had been sold to Malta Retailing Ltd, a subsidiary of Azzopardi Group, and that the handover is expected to be concluded in the coming days.