The French group brought its real estate division Immochan in Romania, which will handle both the project in Giulesti on a plot of land bought from the Grantmetal plant, and the shopping center that will be built on the former Tricodava plant site in Ghencea (west of the city).
Patrick Espasa, general manager of Auchan told ZF that the company would build its first Auchan City project in Romania in Giulesti together with Immochan. The project will include a 5,000-sqm hypermarket selling mostly food and a 2,000-sqm Immochan shopping gallery. The retailer has filed for a construction permit and plans to be done in time for Christmas. The total investment stands at about EUR15 million, Espasa added.
The project on the Tricodava site includes an 11,000-sqm Auchan store and a shopping gallery with 80 stores.
Auchan Romania posted 1.838 billion lei (EUR424 million) in gross sales in 2011, up 6.8% in lei.
The French and German retailers in the hypermarket business will continue to expand in Bucharest over the coming years, so that the number of large-format stores could go up from 20 to 32, Auchan’s Espasa said.
Auchan bought land in Giulesti and Ghencea a few months ago to build new stores and also signed a partnership for another project in Colentina (NE Bucharest), so that it will have five hypermarkets in the capital city. Rivals Kaufland, Carrefour, Real and Cora continue to expand, as well, so that Bucharest will become an increasingly more competitive market in the next few years. (EUR1=RON4.3396)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)