Makro was founded by SHV Holdings, a Dutch conglomerate based in Utrecht in partnership with German company Metro AG, with the first warehouse club opened in Amsterdam in 1968.

Currently, ownership of the worldwide chain of stores is split between different companies like Metro AG in Europe (except UK), SHV Holdings in Latin America (except Peru) and CP All in Asia.

[4] In 1998, owner SHV Holdings sold the Makro stores in Europe to German partner Metro AG.

[7] Makro entered the Philippine market in 1996 through a joint venture with SM Prime Holdings and the Ayala Group.

[15][16] European stores can be found in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Stores have spread to Colombia, South Africa, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Makro stores formerly existed in China, Greece, Belgium, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

[25] SVH operates 35 Makro warehouse clubs[26] across the country and also have a supermarket chain named Mikro with 19 stores.

The non-food area includes clothing, DIY, office supplies, electricals, computing, and seasonals such as garden furniture.

The stores are not open to the general public, but serve the following trades: Customers can shop at Makro with a membership card.

Recent changes to the Makro UK structure include the closure of three stores: Wolverhampton, Coventry and Swansea.

Metro announced that the company has to be financially independent by 2011, and in 2012 Makro UK was sold to the rival wholesaler Booker Group in an agreement valued at around £140 million.