The German network managed to change things at the top of the ranking of retailers in Romania in the last two years and take the leading position after having left behind Carrefour in 2010 and Metro Cash & Carry in 2011. The latter had been the market leader since 1996, when modern retail started in Romania.
Kaufland, one of the lowest-profile local retailers, posted EUR1.35 billion sales last year, up 20% year on year and more than 50% higher than in 2009, according to ZF estimates.
Metro Cash&Carry saw a decline in revenue to EUR1.06 billion in 2011, which is close to the 2004 level. Carrefour on the other hand, posted growth of 5% in 2011 to EUR1.184 bilion, close the peak of 2008, but with 30 more stores.
The two retailers, Metro Cash&Carry and Carrefour, have relied on opening small stores over the last few years, which generate lower revenue. Metro Cash&Carry opened only Punct stores, which are five times smaller than traditional Metros. Carrefour invested in supermarkets and convenience stores, halting expansion on the hypermarket segment, the first retail format it introduced in Romania, which is also its main stream of revenue.
Unlike other retailers such as Metro Cash&Carry and Carrefour, which at the beginning of every year announce the previous year’s results and sometimes their expansion plans, Kaufland does not reveal anything. The only financial data about the company is those published once a year on the Finance Ministry’s website. Moreover, Kaufland does not issue press releases when it opens new stores and only publishes such information on its website.
The German retailer has opened a lot of stores over the last three years, during which consumer spending went down by almost 20%, and therefore almost doubled its network to almost 71 stores.
“In our opinion, Kaufland bet on what Romanians like, that is a really well chosen product range, stores with a Western feel to them, airy, ‘German.’ Romanians have always admired Germans a lot and many of them have seen such stores abroad, in Poland, Czech Republic and Germany,” says Stefania Harabagiu, owner of Brand Support, a BTL creation and innovation agency, which focuses on trade marketing.
She added another advantage of Kaufland is that it appears affordable to various social levels. Kaufland’s stores, unlike those of its other rivals on the hypermarket segment, operate as discount hypermarkets.
Despite the difficult economy and the almost 20% consumer spending decline in 2009-2011, Kaufland has kept sales per store at about EUR19 million. The figure was calculated without taking into account the data of the store opening. Sales per store have gone down for most retailers, which made them invest in new stores to keep sales at the same level.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)
| No | Company (group) | 2011 sales (millions of euros) | 2010 sales (millions of euros) | No. of stores in 2011 | No. of stores in 2010 |
| 1 | Kaufland * | 1,350 | 1,112 | 71 | 58 |
| 2 | Carrefour ** | 1,184 | 1,130 | 70 | 55 |
| 3 | Metro Cash&Carry | 1,059 | 1,137 | 32 | 30 |
| 4 | Selgros Cash&Carry | 780 | 764 | 19 | 18 |
| 5 | Real | 627*** | 694 | 24 | 25 |