Darty Commits €10 Million to a 40-Store Portuguese Network by 2030 After Taking Over 11 Staples Outlets

The electronics retailer Darty — the chain that until recently traded in Portugal as MediaMarkt — is committing €10 million to open 40 stores across the country by 2030, after clearing a regulatory hurdle to absorb 11 outlets from the office-supplies chain Staples. The company, owned by the French group Fnac Darty, announced the plan on Thursday.

The expansion follows a green light from Portugal's competition regulator, the Autoridade da Concorrência (AdC), which approved Darty's purchase of the 11 Staples-operated stores. The company said the transaction lets it accelerate an expansion strategy whose destination remains unchanged: a network of 40 stores in Portugal by the end of the decade.

The acquired locations are concentrated in mid-sized cities and towns rather than the big metropolitan centres, spreading Darty's footprint across the map. The 11 stores are in Viana do Castelo, Vila do Conde, Barcelos and Penafiel in the north; Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Santarém in the centre; the Olivais district of Lisbon and neighbouring Cascais; and Setúbal and Lagoa to the south. Staples Portugal will keep operating its remaining 23 stores, so the deal reshapes rather than dismantles the office-supplies chain's presence.

The move is the latest step in a strategy Fnac Darty laid out a year ago, when it set a goal of reaching a double-digit share of the Portuguese electronics market by 2030, to be won through a combination of more physical stores and growth in online and omnichannel sales. "This operation allows us to accelerate our expansion plan," said Nuno Luz, director-general of Fnac Darty in Portugal, framing the Staples deal as a shortcut to the store count the group has been building toward.

For shoppers, the expansion sharpens competition in a market long dominated by Worten, the electronics chain owned by the Sonae group, and adds a second sizeable Fnac Darty-backed brand alongside the Fnac stores the group already runs. More outlets should mean more physical points of sale for appliances and consumer electronics in cities that have often had limited choice, and more pressure on prices as the two big groups compete for the same customers.

The timing is also telling. The commitment of fresh capital and a firm 2030 store target signals corporate confidence in Portuguese consumer spending — a notable vote of faith at a moment when other indicators point to a cooling economy and mounting strain on smaller businesses. Whether household budgets, squeezed by years of high prices, will support a bigger bricks-and-mortar electronics network is the bet Fnac Darty is now making with its €10 million.