Rewe Group's CEO, Alain Caparros, told local newspaper Welt am Sonntag the retailer will hire 9,000 workers in Germany this year as part of the planned expansion. Amid the economic downturn, Rewe registered sales increase and is, thus, satisfied with the performance in the first quarter, Caparros added. "We feel that consumers are becoming picky and tend to buy cheaper private labels, but we still feel no crisis." Caparros added that apart from the new Rewe City concept, the retailer is working on a refurbished neighbourhood store concept which will be tested shortly. The scheme is to focus on up to 80% regionally sourced products and "quite a lot" of organic foods.

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