“Romania is rather empty for Steinhoff because we only had one store here, opened six years ago,” Akos Forras told ZF in an interview.
There is room for more brands, for new stores on a market of 20 million people. Romania is the second largest market by population numbers in Eastern Europe after Poland, the purchasing power is lower but there are some strong cities the company is considering for development, the new kika Romania boss said.
One of his tasks for the next six months will be to devise a strategic plan for Romania, the new country manager said. Kika invested in land in Romania and is now trying to decide on the most suitable locations to develop its business, because only one store in Romania is definitely not enough. It owns land in Constanta, Timisoara and Oradea and is looking at opportunities. It also has several offers to buy land from various companies and will decide what to do, Akos Forras added.
Kika’s country manager says overall consumer spending has increased in Romania, a trend his company is seeing, too, as the store posted two-digit growth.
Hungarian-born Forras has been working for Steinhoff, kika’s parent group for four and a half years and kept his previous position as head of group services Central Eastern Europe, from which he supervises the operations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary besides Romania. The region he is in charge of generates annual sales of about EUR200 million a year.
The Romanian business contributed 46 million lei (EUR10.4 million) to the sales in 2013.
The change at the helm of kika came after the former country manager Lars Lund took a new position in Sweden, saying the decision to leave Romania was made for personal reasons.
Akos Forras is now working on a EUR750 million market, which witnessed its fifth year of decline in a row in 2013. If the upward trend of the first half continues, 2014 will be the first year of growth for the furniture market after the crisis.
Unlike other markets where the number of international retailers is greater, the Romanian market is dominated by local companies.
Competition from international retailers is lower than in the Czech Republic, for instance, where four IKEAs, as well as Asco, Sconto, Lutz, Mobelix stores make up the international presence.
Romania, on the other hand, has only one IKEA store, which is doing very well, JYSK and the do-it-yourself stores. Local chains are quite powerful in the country, such as Mobexpert, Elvila, Lem’s, Casa Rusu, Akos Forras said.
The market structure is different in Hungary, too. International competitors there are IKEA, JYSK and kika, which operates eight stores in the country and is currently expanding. Budapest is where kika’s largest Eastern European store (40,000 square meters) is.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)