The retailer is already recruiting for the two new stores, its officials said.
“The store in Bucharest (…) will have 600 employees and the store in Bacau 300,” said Ana Maria Florea, the PR representative of Cora. The retailer had 3,665 employees at the end of last year and will reach about 4,500 by yearend, according to ZF calculations.
The two stores are the only ones planned for 2012, therefore Cora’s network will comprise ten hypermarkets at the end of the year.
A third hypermarket had initially been planned for Slobozia (south of the country) this year, but will not open, according to the information provided by the company’s officials who would not provide further details.
Early this year Philippe Lejeune, who has been running the hypermarket chain since its entrance on the Romanian market, announced EUR120 million investments for this year. Part of the money was allotted for new openings, and part of it for buying land. The investment included the store in Slobozia, which is under construction, according to ZF data.
The store on Soseaua Alexandriei (SW of the city) is the fourth hypermarket of the retailer in Bucharest, after those in Lujerului, Pantelimon and Sun Plaza (west, east and south of the city). The three also generate the highest revenue of Cora, its representatives said. The store in Lujerului area posts about EUR100 million in sales a year, one third of the network’s sales.
Cora wants to open more hypermarkets in Bucharest, because it believes the market can accommodate them. Lejeune said a few months ago he had already eyed several plots of land in Bucharest and was in talks to buy them. The company was also going to buy land in major cities throughout the country such as Timisoara, Craiova and Iasi.
Cora already owns stores in Arad, Baia Mare, Cluj, Drobeta and Constanta (west, north, northwest, southwest and southeast of Romania). It also has some land bought in Brasov, Satu Mare (center and north of the country) and Constanta and plans to open a hypermarket in Craiova, when Sonae Sierra’s Adora mall is completed.
Cora will open its first mall, Corall, in Constanta in 2013 and plans to open the store in Brasov in 2013 or 2014. The mall, which will cover 150,000 square meters, will require an about EUR100 million investment. Cora’s boss said he did not rule out further malls, but would not say where they would open.
Cora’s expansion plans became more aggressive in recent years, after the start of consumer spending decline. An explanation for this could be the drop in land price and rent.
Consumer spending showed signs of a rebound this year, when it rose by a little over 4% in the first five months, after decreasing by almost 20% in 2009-2011. Last year it went down 3%, and Cora’s revenue was 1% lower as well, reaching EUR325 million according to Trade Registry data. The decline was slowed down by the new stores opened, as sales per store fell 38% to EUR40.6 million compared with 2010.
Profit dropped, too, from EUR15.7 million in 2010 to EUR9.5 million in 2011, according to Trade Registry data.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)