“The estimate we will see more than EUR500 million revenue still stands. This growth in Altex and Media Galaxy’s case is because of the organic growth of the market, of a higher number of stores and last but not least by there being one less actor on the market,” Dan Ostahie, chief executive officer and owner of the group told ZF.
The computer and electronics market, which stood at almost EUR2.3 billion las year, increased in the first quarter and will continue to increase for the rest of the year, as a result of a consumer spending rebound.
“The computer and electronics market increased by about 15% in the first quarter and the growth in April is 10% compared with the same time last year. (…) The growth was even higher in the first part of year when the VAT [cut] impact was more visible, more obvious and I think we will see an overall market growth of more than 10% by yearend.”
Besides achieving its growth target, Altex plans to be ready to handle all the operations involving orders in Bucharest by itself by the summer of 2017, which means delivering packages to the customer’s door and may expand this to the other big cities in the country later. This is part of a broader strategy of the group to improve its services to differentiate itself from competition.
“Altex Logistic & Distribution is the company handling such services to Altex Romania at the moment. The company is investing in a logistics hub, which will integrate the services to our customers, so we can track the product from the warehouse to the customer’s home. In other words, we will have integrated services in Bucharest and work with other companies in the rest of the country. We will probably decide to replicate the model in other big cities,” Ostahie said.
Altex will also invest in the customer relations department, because the retailer estimates the level of service received and the purchasing experience will become more important to customers than price.
“We will integrate the logistics services, we want our own company on the segment, because retail is becoming more like a logistics business. When the price territory is exhausted, the battleground will move to services, and there we have to be armed with everything we need,” the Altex owner and CEO said.
Altex is also developing its call center so as to provide 24/7 service, because it found online customers also buy during the night, which is why it feels they should have such services available even then, Saturdays and Sundays included. Price differences are no longer that great, so the customer looks at the brand, the buying experience, Ostahie added.
“There is significant dissatisfaction among customers about delivery services. Our new approach means a retailer is throwing down the gauntlet to those that provide such services, because we want to differentiate ourselves when customers buy from us.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)