Carrefour representatives confirmed the partnership, which is set to bring the Carrefour Express store chain to over 30 units from 23 at present.
The French group, which is present on the Romanian market with three store formats- hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores – brought the Express format to the Romanian market in the autumn of 2011, when it sealed a first partnership with another Romanian chain, Angst, controlled by Sorin Minea.
The process of turning Angst stores into Carrefour Express Angst started back then and continued into the present. Today, out of a total of 24 convenience stores 21 are operated by franchisees and three by Carrefour.
The French group competes with small players for a portion of the EUR7-8 billion sales in traditional commerce.
A few months ago Francois Melchior de Polignac, general manager of Carrefour Romania, said traditional stores would not disappear, and that Carrefour was looking for partners among the small store owners.
A business that started 14 years ago
So recently the French group sealed a partnership with the Gulliver chain, whose nine stores are all in Bucharest. The stores are controlled by two Romanian shareholders.
“We started this business in 2000 thanks to favorable circumstances. Now we own nine stores, all of them in Bucharest and in the medium and short term we want to keep the chain in its current form,” says George Florin Brotoiu, 49, one of the company’s shareholders. He does not provide any information on the partnership with Carrefour.
The entrepreneur says the chain closed down several stores, a pilot store that did not work, a store that had been opened in a space for which the company lost the auction and another store that no longer worked in its current space.
Brotoiu adds his business has been affected by the financial crisis, especially since it’s an independent business, with no capital inflows from the outside for expansion.
“The crisis has affected everybody. Moreover, I don’t think there is any area left in Bucharest without strong competition.”
He adds that Romanians are not loyal customers. He says you can make them loyal through prices, services, cleanliness, but If you make one mistake, they migrate.
Brotoiu says the turnover fell 7-8% last year from RON30 million (EUR7 million) recorded in 2011.
The financial crisis strongly affected small merchants, with 35,000 microenterprises in retail closing down in the last few years under the pressure of the crisis and of the aggressive expansion of international retailers. Carrefour is present in Romania with a chain of 116 stores (24 hypermarkets, 24 convenience stores and 68 supermarkets) and turnover of EUR986 million (VAT not included), up 3% on the previous year.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)