Many Dutch people will mainly know Spar from the local supermarkets in villages, the shops at campsites and holiday parks and the convenience stores in city centers. This week, a foreign Spar chain came under controversy: the Iranian branches were closed according to de Volkskrant used to circumvent Western sanctions.
The supermarket company, founded in the Netherlands in 1932, is much more international than local neighborhood stores suggest: Spar stores can be found in more than 48 countries. From Australia to Zimbabwe and from China to the United Kingdom, the green tree logo hangs on the facades of almost 14,000 stores.
What happened in Iran?
According to documents that a whistleblower shared with De Volkskrant, Spar Iran has imported all kinds of Western computer equipment that the Iranian regime itself finds difficult to obtain due to sanctions. Travel visas have also been arranged through Spar for the family members of Iranian officials who are not allowed to travel to Europe due to sanctions.
A payment system was also set up under the Spar name with which Iranians can purchase credit abroad. That money can then be spent in Spar stores by family and friends in Iran. Such a voucher system is allowed, as long as the credit cannot be converted into cash – transferring money directly from a Western bank account to Iran is virtually impossible due to sanctions. But according to the whistleblower documents, Spar Iran still tried to make it possible to exchange the vouchers for cash at Iranian banks.
How did Spar actually end up in Iran?
To answer that question, it is important to know how Spar is organized. The store chain works with local franchisees, who, for a fee, can use the Spar logo and store concepts and purchase products from the company. However, they run their stores as independent entrepreneurs.
In addition to Spar Holding, to which more than four hundred Dutch stores are affiliated, there is a separate company that issues licenses to local retailers worldwide. That organization, Amsterdam-based Spar International, was approached in 2017 by the Austrian company Blue River. It wanted a license to operate a supermarket chain in Iran under the Spar name. The first four supermarkets opened in Tehran in 2020.
Can Spar do nothing against this rogue chain?
The whistleblower who went to De Volkskrant previously raised the issue internally. The company then did nothing. Only after De Volkskrant asked questions did Spar International announce that the Iranian license had been revoked.
There was a similar issue last summer: a trade magazine Distrifood then reported that there new Spar stores continued to open in Russia while other international companies have withdrawn from the country. Spar said at the time that it could do nothing about this, because license contracts are converted into a permanent agreement after three years. Spar International can only stop the collaboration if the contract is violated, for example if the Russian operator no longer pays a license fee. In Iran, Spar says it has found “a number of violations of the license agreement”.