Auchan will be second to Kaufland and will have overtaken Carrefour.
In the first half of 2013, the top three retailers in Romania were Kaufland, Carrefour, and Lidl, the same as in 2012.
“By September 2014, we expect a change in the ranking of retailers following Auchan’s takeover of Real stores from Metro and its remodeling them under its own brand. We estimate Auchan will be the second largest hypermarket chain in Romania at the end of this process,” said Raluca Raschip, consumer goods & retail director with GfK Romania.
According to GfK, Auchan and Real had about 40% of Romanian households as clients in the first half of the year.
Modern retail overtook traditional retail for the first time this year, reaching 53% of the total value of fast moving consumer goods and hypermarkets saw the biggest growth, of 3 percentage points, reaching a share of 28%.
Large retailers opened 270 stores this year, mostly convenience stores and supermarkets. The domestic retail market stood at EUR17.2 billion last year.