Auchan general manager Patrick Espasa said the retailer is now operating at a loss. He also said the company expects revenue to equal costs at the end of 2015, by increasing sales.
Auchan, which opened the first hypermarket in Romania in November 2006, registered loss between 2007 and 2011, and it reported net profit only in 2012. The company’s sales, however, kept rising from one year to another and saw a 25% increase in 2012, to 1.97 billion lei (EUR442.9 million).
Real registered loss since its first year of activity, in 2007. Its loss reached RON73.5 million (EUR16.5 million) in 2012, up 39% from 2011. Real’s net turnover dropped 3.7% on the year to RON2.89 billion in 2012.
The transaction through which Auchan took over 20 Real hypermarkets in Romania, in a larger deal worth EUR1.1 billion, was completed on September 12 following an agreement signed in November 2012. Romania’s antitrust authority cleared the merger at the end of July 2013. Auchan Romania will rebrand the 20 Real hypermarkets to Auchan in less than a year.
Auchan’s network in Romania expanded to 31 hypermarkets, a net sale area of 252,000 sqm, over 10,000 employees, three logistic platforms, 70 million clients per year and reached a combined turnover of over RON4.5 billion, taxes excluded.
Following the deal, Auchan Romania has become one of the top five private employers in Romania and the second largest local retailer, after Kaufland.
Kaufland reported sales of RON6.4 billion in 2012, up 15% from 2011, and net profit of RON274.5 million, up 64% on the year.
Auchan Group operates in 13 countries and is organized on five large divisions: hypermarkets (709 stores), supermarkets (786 stores), real estate (342 Immochan shopping centers), bank (Oney Banca Accord) and e-commerce.