“Carrefour rented the stores in Giurgiu, Targoviste and Ramnicu Valcea, while Rewe bought the space of Ploiesti where an XXL Mega Discount store will be opened,” says a market source.
Another one confirms the opening of XXL Mega Discount in Ploiesti and adds the launch will take place in several days. By edition close, the representatives of Rewe Romania and of Bomax, one of the companies through which Sorin Bonciu took over Interex stores, did not answer ZF’s request for information. Carrefour officials chose not to comment on the information.
Businessman Sorin Bonciu, with real estate and energy businesses, a year ago took over the Interex supermarket network through companies Bomax Invest and Electricom Solar.
From the very beginning, he announced he wanted to rent it or sell it to another food retail or DIY retailer. As he did not find a buyer or tenant for all the ten stores, the businessman decided to break the network down.
French supermarket chain Interex, one of the most discreet retailers in Romania, with revenue of EUR40 million in 2011, exited Romania in late 2012 after closing down all the ten stores it still held. The crisis hurt the retailer’s business, eroding it to less than half and losses widened over four times in 2008-2011 period.
In this context, the French group tried to sell its domestic operations, but after talks failed several times they decided to close down their stores and exit Romania.
Meanwhile, though, entrepreneur Sorin Bonciu took over the stores. The total sale area of the ten units tops 40,000 square meters and the stores fill land plots with an area of above 150,000 square meters, according to Bomax data.
Interex, part of French conglomerate Groupement des Mousquetaires, ITM Entreprises, one of Europe’s biggest retail groups, opened the first store in Romania in 2002 in Ploiesti and then went to medium-sized cities. It shunned Bucharest, which for many is the starting point.
Right from the beginning, the strategy of Interex, with stores of between 1,000 and 3,000 square meters, was to go where rivals were not present. Meanwhile, though, its rivals followed. This is perhaps the reason why the company decided not to expand beyond 12 supermarkets in the past three years, when modern retail doubled to over 1,200 units.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)