Francois Melchior de Polignac, 38, who has been running Carrefour’s Romanian hypermarket and supermarket operations for five months, sends out a positive signal for the country’s retail. De Polignac says in his first interview since arriving in Romania that his main mission in this term is to resume expansion at a rate similar to the one registered during the boom period.
This is an important sign for the economy, considering Carrefour used to open as many as ten hypermarkets per year during the boom period, compared with only one in each of the last three.
De Polignac says that Carrefour Romania will go ahead with expansion of both store formats (hypermarkets and supermarkets), because both of them have potential. He adds that, even though hypermarkets are quite far from consumers’ homes, the main advantage of such stores is that once there one can save time because all product categories are available under the same roof. Furthermore, “prices are lower,” says the man who oversees a business worth over one billion euro.
His statements are backed by this year’s figures. The company will open three hypermarkets (Bucharest, Botosani and Deva) and eight to ten supermarkets by the end of 2011.
This year’s plans are the most aggressive since 2008, after which the company slowed down its expansion pace as a result of the crisis and over 5% decline in consumer spending in Romania. The plans announced by Francois Melchior de Polignac are an important indicator of a consumer spending rebound. “We will continue to develop. We will open both hypermarkets and supermarkets.”
This is the second piece of good news that Carrefour has given this year, after announcing a 1.4% increase in like-for-like sales in the second quarter, breaking a nine-quarter string of declines. This is the most important indicator published in the report of the French group because it includes sales for a similar number of stores and does not factor in expansion, the only source of growth for retailers over the recession years, when retail lost EUR5 billion.
When it comes to future plans of the French retailer and the possibility of introducing a new format on the local market, Francois Melchior de Polignac says “we are looking at all modern retail formats,” adding that the coffee shop segment is not considered.
Commenting about a potential partnership with local retailer Angst, Carrefour Romania’s boss says that if a partnership were signed with another retailer, he would only announce it together with that particular retailer.
De Polignac says that even though the consumer spending trend has been difficult and he does not see any major changes happening in the next three months, the company will end the year with higher sales than last year.
(English version by Loredana Frățilă-Cristescu)