6 FOREIGN LANGUAGE NEWS 026CANARY ISLANDS

tWo arrested In gran canarIa

End nigh for Pink Panthers?

neW store In vecIndarIo

Conforama arrives in Gran CanariaConforama, the renowned brand for household furnish-ings, has recently opened its first store in Gran Canaria, the fourth opening in the Canary Islands.conforama is one of europe’s largest home furnishings retail chains, with over 200 stores in spain, France, switzer-land, Portugal, luxembourg, Italy and croatia. the last conforama branch to open in spain took place in september in rivas-vaciamadrid.the new store opens in vecindario in the south of gran canaria and will see the employment of 60 people. the inauguration was the 27th in spain and strengthens its posi-tion on the Islands, having seen excellent results from the three stores based in tenerife.the vecindario installation has

a 5,000 m2 shop floor and a 10,000 m2 warehouse with over 6,000 items of furniture and furnishings available to customers.manuel estévez, the ceo of conforama Iberian Peninsula, said, “We are very pleased with this new project and to open our first store in gran canaria.

With this new addition, con-forama moves towards its goals of strengthening its presence in the canary Islands and all major spanish provinces,

helping to consolidate us as key players in the sector.” He added, “additionally we have created 60 new jobs in the area, which is a great source of pride for us because it means we now have 220 conforama employees across the two islands.”alongside the new gran canar-ian store, conforama has three

others in tenerife, located in la laguna, la orotava and las chafiras. more openings are planned for the near future, including on the islands of lan-zarote and Fuerteventura, as well as expanding in tenerife and gran canaria.conforama has a european-wide network of 289 stores, of which 213 are in France

where the company originated. In 2011, it was acquired by the south african company steinhoff International. con-forama sales amounted to over €3 billion in the finan-cial year 2013/2014, and the company has 13,400 employees.For more information visit: www.conforama.es. n

Spanish police say a break-through in the Canaries in the war on jewellery shop raiders could mark the beginning of the end of one of Europe’s most notorious networks of criminal gangs, dubbed the Pink Panthers in law enforce-ment circles.the investigation into a clini-cally-executed raid on a shop in Fuerteventura last septem-ber, in which a million euros worth of luxury watches were stolen, led to the arrest of two serbian nationals in gran canaria earlier in the month. the duo were trying to fly out with some of the haul from

the robbery and had been under surveillance for several

weeks after civil guard offi-cers linked them to the morro Jable raid.they are believed to be among a number of east europeans, some of them ex-military, who have set up gangs to carry out heists across spain and fur-ther afield, and their arrest is a significant step in attempts to bring the feared raiders to justice.according to the authorities, the serbians fled Fuerteven-tura by yacht shortly after the raid on the jewellers and holed up in maspalomas, blending in with tourists at an apart-ment complex. n

The much loved character is used to symbolise one of Europe’s top criminal gangs

Conforama has opened two new branches in Spain since the autumn

The Las Chafiras store opened in summer 2014

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