Modelo Continente Hipermercados is the sub-holding of the Sonae Group in the retail sector. Sonae is the major Portuguese private group with controlling interests in a number of different business areas: retail, shopping centre, industry, mobile and fixed telecommunications, tourism, real estate, transports and logistics, insurance brokerage, car hire, etc. Modelo Continente is the number one operator in food retail in Portugal, with a structured portfolio of brands that include: Continente hypermarkets, Modelo mini-hypermarkets and Modelo Bonjour supermarkets. The company is also leader in non food retail with the brands Sport Zone (sports clothing and equipment) , Worten (white goods and consumer electronics) and Vobis (computers) , while both Modalfa (apparel) , Max Mat (building construction materials and DYI) , Zippy (baby and kids clothing) , Area Saude (Para pharmacies) and Star (travel agencies) have important positions in the market. Overall, the company has more than 450 stores, located all over Portugal, and nearly 20. 000 employees.